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The  Churchman. 


July  IS,  1896     (19) 


The  Evolution  of  Church  Music.  By  the 
Bet  F  Laodon  Humphreys,  Mm  Doo.,  s.T.D. 
With  h  i  refuse  by  the  Kt.  K.v  H.  0.  1'otter,  D.D., 
I.I.  p..  OX  L  l'i  179, SI  75.  [Nt-w  York:  Charles 
Bcritmer'i  Sons.l 
In  an    introductory    note    the    author  of 

this  interesting  book  explains  thai   it  is 

rather  a  growth  than  the  working  out  of  a 

tix.'d  Intention.  Beginning  as  a  lecture, 
several  times  rewritten,  it  has  finally 
been  extended  to  its  present  form.  It  is 
not  t<>  be  expected  that  a  volume  of  less 
than  two  hundred  pases  will  treat  ex- 
haustively a  subject  so  large  as  the  history 
of  music,  for  the  history  of  Church  music 
is  practically  thai  of  all  music  down  to  a 
comparatively  recent  period.  The  aim  of 
the  author  is  rather  to  give  a  rapid  and 
comprehensive  view  of  the  subject,  in  a 
style  neither  too  condensed  for  easy  read- 
ing nor  too  technical  to  attract  those  who 
might  be  repelled  from  pages  bristling 
with  musical  terms. 

The  iirst  chapter  sketches  the  develop- 
ment of  music  from  the  "primordial  cry" 
through  the  first  crude  attempts  at  the 
orderly  arrangement  of  sounds  by  means 
of  roughly-fashioned  instruments,  and 
through  the  early  Hebrew  and  Egyptian 
periods  to  the  Greek  modal  system.  At 
the  outset,  we  are  inclined  to  think  that 
the  author  does  not  keep  clearly  before 
his  reader  the  idea  of  an  evolution  as  dis- 
tinguished from  a  mere  progress.  For 
example,  in  speaking  of  the  earliest  known 
forms  of  the  scale,  and  in  endeavoring  to 
explain  the  reasons  why  certain  intervals 
were  recognized  before  others,  he  says: 
"To  elucidate  this  reason,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  understand  that  melodic  scales  and 
harmonic  scales  are  quite  different,  and 
that  our  system  of  harmony  is  a  purely 
scholastic  product."  One  might  easily 
draw  the  inference  from  this  that  the 
modern  system  of  harmony  was  an  al- 
together artificial  thing,  based  upon  noth- 
ing more  than  an  accumulated  mass  of' 
arbitrary  dicta.  Hut  such  an  idea  is 
foreign  to  ihe  very  essence  of  an  evolu- 
tion. Involution  is  a  growth  from  an  in- 
ferior  form,  through  various  intermediate 
forms,  to  the  highest  possible  stage  of  de- 
velopment Prof.  Drummond  has  aptly 
illustrated    the   difference    between    true 

evolution  and  mere  development,  by  com- 
paring the  growth  of  the  plant  from  seed 
t < .  shoot,  from  shoot  to  bush. and  from  bush 
to  giant    tree,    with  the    changes  that   take 

place  in  a  stalactite  in  a  cave.     Both   the 

plant  and  the  stalactite  become  larger  and 
larger,   and    change    their    forms,    but    the 

one  i^  the  result  of  an  Inherent  vital  force, 

the  other   is  the   result    of     mere   accretion. 

Now,  the  development  of  music  has  been 

a  real  evolution,  and  the  vital  force  which 


has  given  impetus  to  it  all  along  has  been 
the    unquenchable   desire    of     the   human 
mind     for    a  system    of    tone-arrangement 
which  should    satisfy    the    ear,   and    upon 
which  the  musical  sonse  could  rest  as  up- 
on  a   finality.      Hence   the  steady,    though 
incredibly  slow, series  of  modifications  and 
amplifications  which  the  scale  underwent. 
each  one    bringing    it    nearer    to  the   fully 
developed  farm  in  which  we  now  know  it. 
To  say  that  these  changes  were  only  the 
product  of   scholasticism.   is   to  take  away 
the  vitality  from  the  growth  of  music  ami 
to  reduce  it  to  the  level  of  the  stalactite. 
Moreover,   it  reverses  the  whole    chain  of 
processes  which  we   know   to   have    taken 
place  in    the  progress  of  the  art.'    If  we 
follow  the  recorded  history  of  music  as  far 
back  as  it  goes  we  find  that  every  step  in 
advance  has  been  made  in  the  teeth  of  the 
scholasticism    of    the    period,   which    has 
always  arrayed  itself  against  innovations. 
The  men  who  contributed  to  the  advance- 
ment   of  the    art  were  those    venturesome 
souls  who  dared  to  do  what  had  never  been 
done   before,  in   obedience   to  an  instinct 
within   them  which   told  them   that  what 
they  did  was  musically  right.    Every  com- 
poser  great   enough  to    be   classed  among 
the  epoch   makers,  of  whom  we  have  any 
knowledge,  from  Richard  Wagner  back  to 
Monteverde,  trampled  the  theoretical  rules 
of  scholasticism  under  foot  and  was  bitter- 
ly  assailed    for    doing  so.     Scholasticism 
prepared   the   way   for  discoveries:  it  did 
not  make  them.     Are  we  not  justified  in 

supposing  that  the  process  of  development 
was  the  same  through  the  earlier  and  pre 
historic  periods? 

When  one  applies  the  inductive  method 
to  an  investigation,  he  must  take  account 
of  all  the  available  facts,  and  the  testi- 
mony of  the  facts  is  that  in  every  age  the 
final  appeal  of  music  has  been  to  the  ear, 
and  so  completely  is  this  now  recognized 
that,  at  the  present  day,  the  most  dis- 
tinguished composers  have  no  compunc- 
tion whatever  in  violating  rules  which 
stand  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  theo- 
retical primer,  if  thereby  they  can  obtain 
the  effects  they  seek.  The  ear  is  the 
court  of  last  rosort. 

Again,  if  the  modern  system  of  harmony 
is  purely  a  scholastic  product,  why  is  it 
that  during  the  centuries  since  it  has 
been  established  science,  experiment,  in- 
vestigation and  erudition  have  neither 
added  to  it  nor  taken  from  it?  When  we 
look  into  the  history  of  the  preceding 
periods,  we  find  constant  changes  taking 
place,  not  simply  in  the  mode  of  employ- 
ing the  scale,  but  in  the  scale  itself.  Hut 
the  harmonic  scale  has  stood  through  a 
period    of    inquirv    and    experiment   un- 


paralleled  in  the  world's  history  without 
change.  We  take  the  reason  to  be,  that 
the  harmonic  scale  marked  the  summit 
and  end  of  the  evolution  of  the  8y$tem  of 
music.  We  may  borrow  once  more  from 
Prof.  Drummond.  His  argument  (in 
"The  Ascent  o!  Man")  is  that  biological 
evolution  stopped  with  man.  because  00 
the  appearance  of  man  a  new  evolution 
began— "the  evolution  of  the  tool."  A 
similar  line  of  argument  might  be  used  to 
prove  that  the  harmonic  scale  was  the 
final  step  in  the  organism  of  music,  be- 
cause immediately  thereupon  a  new  evo- 
lution started — the  evolution  of  combina- 
tion :  harmony. 

We  confess  that  we  prefer  to  believe  the 
present  system  to  be  the  revelation  of  a 
great  fact— a  fact  based  upon  some  greater 
law  of  nature  which  science  has  not  yet 
fathomed— than  to  look  upon  it  as  the 
mere  artificial  structure  of  scholars  and 
theorists.  We  do  not  comprehend  how  a 
South  Sea  Islander's  strumming  of  a 
couple  of  fragmentary  chords  on  his  little 
mandolin  of  gourd  is  any  nearer  to  nature 
than  the  strains  of  the  Pastoral  Symphony. 
The  savage's  efforts  are  the  poor  result  of 
a  dim  comprehension.  His  music  is 
simply  an  imperfect,  embryonic  product. 
It  may  have  remained  in  its  rudimentary 
state  for  ages,  but  that  only  proves  that  it 
is  one  of  the  instances  of  arrested  develop- 
ment of  which  evolution  is  full.  The 
terms  "natural"  and  "primitive"  are  not 
convertible. 

The  second  chapter  of  the  book  deals  with 
the  music  of  the  early  Christian  Church, 
but  while  it  goes  concisely  over  the  histor- 
ical ground  it  contains  much  more  than  its 
title  would  lead  one  to  expect.  Indeed,  we 
imagine  that  this  section  may  have 
been  the  original  lecture  which  forms 
the  nucleus  of  the  volume,  for  it  is  in  it- 
self quite  a  complete  essay  on  Church 
music.  We  find  it  the  most  interesting 
chapter  in  the  book,  because  it  sets  out 
Dr.  Humphreys's  views  on  the  essential 
differences  between  sacred  and  secular 
music— an  important  subject.  If  we  ap- 
prehend the  author  aright,  the  first  test 
by  which  he  would  determine  the  essen- 
tially sacred  character  of  a  composition  is 
the  frame  of  mind  in  which  the  composer 
has  essayed  his  task.  The  argument  is 
based  upon  the  proposition  that  music  is 
the  expression  of  human  emotion,  and 
that,  therefore,  sacred  music  must  be  the 
expression  of  religious  emotion.  From 
this  he  contends  that  "a  person  devoid  of 
spiritual  discernment  and  spiritual  life, 
unstirred  and  uninfluenced  by  religious 
emotion,  cannot  express,  musically  or 
otherwise,  an  emotion  to  which  he  is 
himself  a  stranger.  " 

The  vulnerable  point  in  this  argument 
lies  in   the   major  premise.     That   music 


is  not  the  expression  of  human  emotion 
was  long  ago  proved,  notably  by  Hansliek, 
in  his  famous  essay  on  "The  Beautiful  in 

Music.'"  We  might,  if  space  permitted, 
quote  page  after  page  of  the  unassailable 

argument  by  which  the  great  Austrian 
critic  shows  that  there  is  no  "casual 
nexus1*  between  music  and  emotion. 
we  must  leave  this  to  the  reader,  and 
on  t<>  the  deduction  which  i )r.  Humphreys 
draws.  It  will  be  seen  that  his  general 
i/ation  that  "a  person  devoid  of  spiritual 
discernment  .  .  .  cannot  express,  mu- 
sically or  otherwise,  an  emotion  to  which 
he  is  a  stranger"  is  only  a  partial  state- 
ment of  a  larger  generalization.  If  what 
he  says  be  true  of  the  expression  of  re- 
ligious emotion,  it  is  also  true  of  emotion 
which  is  not  religious,  and  the  statement 
then  assumes  this  form  :  No  man  can  ex- 
press to  others  emotions  to  which  he  is 
himself  a  stranger.  In  other  words,  he 
must  himself  have  experienced  specific 
mental  processes  before  he  can  set  kindred 
processes  in  operation  in  the  minds  of 
others.  Here,  again,  the  inductive  method 
fails  to  support  the  conclusion.  One 
comes  upon  a  whole  line  of  facts  which 
cannotbe  reconciled  with  the  theory — facts 
furnished  by  the  stage.  No  one  will 
question  the  immense  power,  both  of  ex- 
pressing and  exciting  emotion,  wielded  by 
actors ;  but  no  one  for  a  moment  sup- 
poses that  Edwin  Booth  underwent  the 
mental  experiences  of  a  madman  as  a 
preparation  for  his  presentation  of  Ham- 
let, or  that  Mr.  Irving's  conception  of  the 
"Merchant  of  Venice"  springs  from  a 
mind  which  has  burned  with  revenge  over 
the  loss  of  a  bagful  of  ducats  and  a 
.daughter,  or  that  Miss  Terry  has  ever 
passed  through  the  mental  agonies  which 
she  so  heartrendingly  depicts  in  the  rOli 
of  Marguerite.  There  is  a  very  distinct 
line  of  separation  between  the  actual  ex- 
perience of  an  emotion  and  the  power  to 
comprehend  an  emotion  which  has  not 
been  experienced.  This  power  is  not 
vouchsafed  to  every  one,  but  it  is 
possessed  in  a  high  degree  by  great  act- 
ors and  great  musicians. 

It  may  be  said  that  this  line  of  reason- 
ing deals  more  with  the  performance  of 
music  than  with  its  creation  ;  but  when 
we  endeavor  to  apply  the  emotional  test  to 
the  actual  composition  of  a  work  in  order 
to  determine  its  sacred  or  secular  charac- 
1  ter,  we  are  met  by  difficulties  hardly  less 
formidable.  To  begin  with,  in  respect  to 
a  vast  number  of  the  works  of  dead  com- 
posers, we  are  absolutely  without  what 
may  be  called  collateral  evidence  as  to 
what  frame  of  mind  they  were  in  when 
they  wrote.  We  must,  therefore,  depend 
.solely  upon  the  character  of  the  music 
itself,  and  this  intrinsic  evidence  is  by 
no  means  reliable.     Dr.    Humphreys  him 


self  furnishes  us  with  an  illustration.  He 
Bays:  "Instinctively,  we  feel,  leaving  the 
significance  <>f  the  words  aside,  that  the 
music  of  'The  Messiah1  is  Baited  to  b 
church."  Mervl\  pausing  to  note  thai  do 
esthetic  law  can  be  based  opoo  so  varia- 
ble and  uncertain  a  foundation  as  in- 
stinctive feelings,  We  remark  that  it  is 
perfectly  well  known  that  Handel  incor- 
porated into  "The  Messiah''  a  number  of 
earlier  compositions  of  his  own  I  some- 
times unaltered  even  as  to  key)  which 
were  of  purely  secular  character  and  de 

sign.  Are  we  to  suppose  that  Handel 
Was  in  a  religious  frame  of  mind  when  he 
Composed  those  madrigals  which  he  after- 
wards found    could     he    warmed  over  and 

served  up  again  to  advantage?  And  if 
not.  at  what  point  did  those  compositions 
cease  to  be  essentially  secular,  and  be- 
come essentially  sacred?  In  speaking  of 
the  so-called  sacred  music  of  Mozart, 
Rossini  and  some  other  composers,  Dr. 
Humphreys  says :  "  In  short,  it  is  not  de- 
votional, either  because  the  composers 
had  no  religious  idea  to  express,  or  be- 
cause they  wrote  to  please  a  worldly  and 
secular  taste.  .  .  .  Although  written 
expressly  for  the  Church,  it  does  not 
represent  the  feeling,  and  has  not  the 
meaning  that  sacred  music  should  have." 
This  is  unquestionably  true,  but  the  con- 
verse is  also  true — that  much  music  of  ab- 
solutely secular  origin  is  found  to  minis- 
ter helpfully  to  the  devotions  of  pious 
people,  though  it  may  be  as  a  stumbling 
block  to  the  thoroughly  informed  musi 
cian,  and  to  the  critical  listener  as  fool- 
ishness. 

In    truth,  association    plays    a    part   so 
very  important  in    determining  the  effect 
of  a  given  composition,  that  no  deduction 
is  valuable  which  fails  to  take  account  of 
this  factor.     "The  Messiah"  is   an    illus- 
tration directly  in  point.     It  was  launched 
on  its  career  as  a  sacred  composition,  and 
it  comes  down    to   us    backed   by    all  the 
force  of  a  century  and  a  half  of  religious 
associations.        Its     character     as     sacred 
music  is  not    at    nil  disturbed  by  the  fact 
that    its    origin    was    partly  secular.      No 
person  who  is  unfamiliar  with  the  history 
of    the     work    can   possibly  detect     which 
portions  were  introduced  by  Handel  from 
his  earlier  works,  and  !  hose  who  know  (he 
facts  cannot     specify    any    distinguishing 
features    which   separate    the  worked  over 
madrigals    from    the    rest.     We   "instinc- 
tively   feel"    that   "The  Messiah"    is   a 
sacred    composition    because   we   do    uot 

know  it.  in  any  other  character.  The 
same  thing  is  true  of  the  Gregorian  tones. 

Investigation  has  shown  that  the  origin 
of  these  tones  was  pagan.  Originally 
90me  of  them  may  have  been  of  religious 
character,  in  tie-  sense  that  the  hymns 
addressed  to  heathen  deities  were  relig- 
ion^.     Hut    whatever    ma\    have    been  the 


purpose  of  their  first  conception,  they  un- 
doubtedly formed  part  of  the  current 
music  of  the  period  at  which  the  early 
Church  adopted  them  and  put  them  to  re- 
ligious use-  We  owe  the  preservation  of 
these  ancient  melodies  solely  to  the 
Church.  But  for  her,  they  would,  doubt- 
less, have  been  utterly  lost  and  forgotten. 
Consequently  we  have  no  conception  of 
any  other  use  being  made  of  them  than 
ecclesiastical  use.  They  come  down  to 
us  surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  of  re- 
ligion, and  their  associations,  together 
with  their  archaic  form,  give  them  the 
solemnity  which  so  strongly  impresses  the 
listener.  But  to  say  that  they  are  in- 
trinsically religious  because  of  specific 
peculiarities  of  construction  is  like  assert 
ing  that  there  is  something  sacred  in  the 
mere  syntax  of  our  King  James  version 
Of  the  Scriptures. 

That  there  are  certain  characteristics 
which  should  never  appear  in  the  music 
of  the  sanctuary  is  true,  and  Dr.  Hum- 
phreys points  out  some  of  them.  These 
features  are  objectionable,  because  asso 
ciation  has  inseparably  linked  them  with 
what  is  worldly  and  trivial,  and  their  use 
in  worship  would  suggest  thoughts  which 
are  foreign  to  devotion.  We  would  not 
be  understood  as  undervaluing  the  emo- 
tional side  of  sacred  music,  nor  as  con- 
tending that  a  person  of  unbelieving  soul 
and  irreligious  life  can  render  as  worthy 
service  in  the  musical  worship  of  God  as 
one  to  whom  religion  is  a  reality. 
What  we  would  gladly  see  more  clearly 
recognized  is  that  sacred  music  does  not 
depend  for  its  existence  on  any  funda- 
mental and  necessary  connection  between 
it  and  emotion,  however  valuable  as  an 
emotional  agent  it  may,  under  certain 
circumstances,  be.  Unbelievers  and  irre- 
ligious persons  are  out  of  place  either  in 

initiating  or  performing  the  music  of  the 

hurch  ;  but  the  objection  to  them  stands 
upon  well-defined  grounds  of  its  own.  and 
not  upon  a  psychological  impossibility. 
the  existence  of  which  is,  to  say  the  least, 
debatable. 

The  whole  question  of  the  fitness  or  un- 
fitness of  a  given  composition  for  sacred 
purposes  must  be  left  to  the  arbitration  of 
taste.  It  cannot  be  determined  by  any 
hard  and  fast  rules  or  theoretical  stand 
ards. 

The  elevation   and   refinement  of  taste, 
both  in  those  who  perforin  and  those  who 
hear,   is  the  real    task    before    the  ess;<\  isl 
on    Church    music,  and    here    Dr.    hum 
phreys  grasps  fully    the    opportunities  be 
lore  him.      Mis  criticism  is  acute  and  far- 
reaching,    his    taste    cultivated,     and    his 
reading  wide.      We  could    wish    that  that 
portion  of  his  book  which  relates  especial 
ly  to  hymns  had  been  extended  to  a  much 
greater  length,  so    full    is    it  of  sound  and 
discriminating  judgment.     That  his  nrof- 


erencos  incline  strongly  to  the  English 
school  goes  without  saying,  and  he  gives 
a  very  comprehensive  review  of  the  de- 
velopment of  Anglican  music.  A  classi- 
fication which  puts  Sir  John  Goss  in  the 
same  historical  period  with  Boyce  and 
Battishill,  while  it  sots  down  Smart, 
Dykes,  Barnby  and  others  as  men  of 
"modern  times,"  seems  hardly  accurate. 
Goss  lived  to  a  great  age,  and  only  died  a 
few  years  ago,  and  1;     is  quite  as  much  to 

be  ranked  as  a  modern  composer  as  either 
Dykes  or  Smart,  both  of  whom,  if  we  re- 
member aright,  died  before  him. 

We  can  pay  no  higher  compliment  to 
Dr.  Humphreys's  book  than  to  say  that  it 
is  both  suggestive  and  stimulating.  The 
time  spent  by  any  one  who  is  interested 
in  the  development  of  all  that  is  best  in 
Church  music  in  reading  it  will  be  well 
bestowed.  That  we  cannot  accept  all  of 
the  postulates  from  which  Dr.  Hum- 
phreys reasons  has  not  prevented  us  from 
deriving  a  pleasure  and  profit  from  "The 
Evolution  of  Church  Music,"  which  we 
trust  may  be  shared  by  many  readers. 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

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http://archive.org/details/evochurcOOhump 


(tfuolution  of  Cljurcl)  Jttusic 


Netu  JJork 
Cijarks  Scrtbncr  0  Sons 


/ 


JUN  22  1932 


(EJjetEtoolutton 


/ttus.gtor.§.(Lp.uritf)-prefatt-l>iJ 

tl^W.fccu  J.(t$otter-p.  ip.  MI. 


Copsrfgbt,  \896,  b£ 
f.  Xanl>on  "fcumpbre^s 


^Habe  bj 
3   3-  Urttle  $c  Co. 

Well)  Yurfe 


&o  t\\z  one 

to  tuliom  3  otoe  t\)C  most 

is  this  least  of  offerings  oeoirateo 

JAB  Jdt{j*r 


preface 

It  is  eminently  appropriate  that  the 
story  of  the  Evolution  of  Music  should  be 
written  by  a  clergyman.  A  retrospect 
which  reaches  back  no  farther  in  the  land 
from  which  we  derive  both  our  language 
and  our  literature  than  the  third  decade 
of  the  thirteenth  century  will  discover 
that  the  first  English  school  of  music  of 
which  any  trace  has  been  discovered,  was 
founded  about  that  time  by  John  of  Forn- 
sete,  a  monk  attached  to  the  famous 
monastery  at  Reading,  in  Berkshire.  Its 
records  still  survive,  and  the  curious 
scholar  may  find  them  in  a  manuscript 
bearing  date  1226,  which  is  known  as  the 
Reading  MS.,  and  which  is  among  the 
treasures  of  the  British  Museum.* 

It  is  a  suggestive  picture  which  such  a 
fact  calls  up.  Dr.  Jessup  has  shown,  in  his 
charming  volume  on  the  monastic  life  of 

*  Harl.  MS.,  No.  978. 


8  Preface 

England  in  those  times,  how  in  days  of 
warfare  and  unrest  the  cloister  was  the 
refuge  of  the  student  and  the  artist. 
Everything  that  is  best  that  has  survived 
those  days  reveals  how  men  of  native  re- 
finement and  of  cultivated  taste  found  in 
such  retreats  the  opportunity  for  the  cul- 
tivation of  painting,  letters,  and  music. 
John  Henry  Newman,  in  his  memorable 
sermon  on  St.  Andrew,  reminds  us  that 
the  author  of  the  present  system  of  musi- 
cal notation  is  unknown,  but  the  history 
of  music  leaves  little  reason  to  doubt  that 
it  was  the  invention  of  an  ecclesiastic. 
There  were  devout  men,  like  David  long 
before  them,  who  found  in  music  the  most 
adequate  expression  of  their  deepest  emo- 
tions ;  and  the  history  of  music  may  be 
said,  in  one  aspect  of  it,  to  be  almost  a 
history  of  religion. 

We  go  back  to  the  earliest  beginnings 
in  that  history,  and  we  find  that  music  is 
forever  associated  with  two  conspicuous 
elements  of  a  nation's  life — war  and 
worship.  Indeed,  as  in  the  case  of  Israel 
in    its    wanderings,    the    two    were,    in    a 


JJreface 


sense,  but  one.  The  priests  prayed,  the 
minstrels  sang  or  trumpeted,  and  the  peo- 
ple fought ;  and  as  one  ascends  out  of  that 
earlier  and  more  primitive  stage  of  soci- 
ety, side  by  side,  struggle  and  song  climb 
up  to  loftier  heights  and  wider  triumphs. 

That  is  a  timely  service,  therefore, 
which  undertakes  to  make  this  plain  ;  to 
trace  the  progress  of  music  from  its  sim- 
plest and  most  elementary  form  and  in- 
struments to  its  latest  and  most  complex 
achievements.  For  such  a  task  the  au- 
thor of  this  volume  has  many  excellent 
gifts,  and  I  am  glad  to  be  permitted  to 
express  my  confidence  in  the  painstaking 
fidelity  with  which  he  has  addressed  him- 
self to  it. 

Henry  C.   Potter. 

St.  Andrew's  Day,  1895. 


3ntrobtutorg  Note 

A  few  years  ago,  in  response  to  the 
request  of  an  association  of  clergymen  in 
the  Diocese  of  New  York,  the  author 
wrote  a  paper  on  music.  This  essay  was 
subsequently  read  before  similar  associa- 
tions in  other  dioceses,  and  each  time 
was  partially  or  wrholly  rewritten.  Later 
the  same  matter,  recast  and  extended,  was 
delivered  in  the  more  popular  form  of 
lectures  before  the  students  of  several  of 
our  church  colleges  and  seminaries  ;  and 
now,  with  considerable  additions,  it  is 
offered  to  a  still  larger  public.  In  pre- 
paring it  for  print,  all  quotations  have  as 
far  as  possible  been  revised,  and  due  credit 
has  been  given.  Yet  in  the  course  of  these 
frequent  changes  and  extensions  it  is  quite 
possible  that  some  errors — I  hope  not 
many — may  have  occurred.  The  ade- 
quate consideration  of  so  extensive  a  sub- 
ject as  church  music  would  naturally  call 


i2  Jntrobnctorji  JTotc 

for  a  much  larger  volume  than  this.  But 
I  have  aimed  at  nothing  more  than  the 
endeavor  to  present  an  accurate  and  com- 
prehensive sketch  of  the  subject  in  a  com- 
paratively small  volume  and  in  a  readable 
form. 

We  have  not  yet  reached  a  proper  con- 
ception of  the  right  use  and  dignity  of 
true  church  music.  It  is  too  often  con- 
sidered a  mere  ornamental  accessory,  not 
the  highest  and  best  expression  of  reli- 
gious feeling  known  to  mankind.  It  is 
in  the  hope  of  arousing  a  greater  and 
more  intelligent  interest  in  the  subject, 
among  both  the  clergy  and  the  laity,  that 
this  book  is  put  forth. 


(Origin  ano  (Emotional  Significant*  of  Jttnsir 


11  Blest  pair  of  sirens,  pledges  of  heaven's  joy, 
Sphere-born,  harmonious  sisters,  Voice  and  Verse, 
Wed  your  divine  sounds,  and  mixed  powers  employ, 
Dead  things  with  inbreathed  sense  able  to  pierce  ; 
And  to  our  high-raised  phantasy  present 
That  undisturbed  song  of  pure  consent, 
Aye  sung  before  the  sapphire-colored  throne 
To  Him  that  sits  thereon, 
With  saintly  shout,  and  solemn  jubilee  ; 
Where  the  bright  seraphim,  in  burning  row, 
Their  loud-uplifted  angel-trumpets  blow  ; 
And  the  cherubic  host,  in  thousand  choirs, 
Touch  their  immortal  harps  of  golden  wires, 
With  those  just  spirits  that  wear  victorious  palms, 
Hymns  devout  and  holy  psalms 
Singing  everlastingly." 

— Milton. 


<£t)c  (guolution  of  €\)\xxc\)  Music 


Chapter  t 

The  power  of  music  over  human  emo- 
tions was  acknowledged  long  before  we 
have  any  traces  of  its  beginnings  as  an 
art.  Music  owes  its  evolution  entirely  to 
man.  Painting,  sculpture,  and  poetry, 
apart  from  the  media  which  they  employ, 
necessarily  involve  a  reference  to  nature. 
Music,  in  so  far  as  it  relates  to  its  subject, 
could  exist  if  there  were  no  world  of 
nature  at  all.  It  is  at  once  sensuous  and 
spiritual.  Its  direct  appeal  is  made  to 
the  auditory  nerve ;  but  it  has  certain 
qualities  which  penetrate  beyond,  and 
reach  an  aesthetic  faculty  which  we  have 
every  right  to  call  the  soul.  Beethoven 
wrote    on    the    Mass    in    D,    "  From    the 


i6  (The  <£tiolMion  of  Cbnrrb  fttnsic 

heart  it  has  come,  and  to  the  heart  it 
shall  penetrate,"  and  all  true  music  may 
take  those  words  for  its  maxim. 

The  Bible  itself  bears  frequent  witness 
to  the  power  of  music  exerted  by  even  so 
imperfect  an  instrument  as  David's  harp. 
"When  the  evil  spirit  was  upon  Saul, 
David  took  an  harp  and  played,  so 
Saul  was  refreshed,  and  the  evil  spirit 
departed  from  him."  The  most  patient 
of  men  speaks  of  those  "  who  take  the 
timbrel  and  harp,  and  rejoice  at  the  sound 
of  the  organ."  The  early  Fathers  of  the 
Church  also  frequently  testify  to  the  emo- 
tional power  and  value  of  music.  St. 
John  Chrysostom  said  of  it :  "  It  hath  a 
sweetness  and  utility,  and  glorifieth  God, 
purifieth  our  hearts,  elevateth  our  con- 
templations, and  helpeth  to  make  us  wise 
unto  salvation."  St.  Augustine  speaks  of 
the  "way  music  has  of  soothing  whatever 
passions  hurt  the  soul,  repressing  sensual- 
ity, and  moving  to  holy  contrition  and 
godly  sobriety."  St.  Basil,  after  describ- 
ing the  power  of  music  to  repel  demons 
and  lure  the   ministry  of   angels,  further 


(ElK  ©ooltttion  of  (Church  ittusic         17 

says :  "  It  hath  pleased  him  to  borrow 
from  melody  that  pleasure  which,  being 
mingled  with  heavenly  truths,  conveys 
them,  as  by  stealth,  into  our  mind." 
Luther  said  :  "Music  is  one  of  the  most 
glorious  gifts  of  God.  It  removes  from 
the  heart  the  weight  of  sorrows  and  the 
fascination  of  evil  thoughts." 

The  most  striking  testimony  to  the 
ethical  influence  of  music  is  to  be  found 
in  the  writings  of  the  Greek  philosophers. 
The  forms  of  music  in  ancient  Greece 
were  known  by  national  or  tribal  names 
which  were  called  modes :  of  these,  four 
were  more  commonly  used ;  namely,  the 
Dorian,  Phrygian,  Ionian,  and  Lydian. 
Each  of  these  was  regarded  as  capable  of 
arousing  particular  emotions,  and  of  act- 
ing on  the  mind  in  a  way  to  exert  an 
important  influence  on  the  formation  of 
character.  Both  Socrates  and  Plato  men- 
tion it  as  a  serious  consideration  to  choose 
wisely  those  musical  forms  to  be  used  in 
state  education.  Socrates  says  :  "  Give 
me  the  mode  which  will  imitate  the  ac- 
cents   of   a   brave  man  enduring  danger 


1 8         (£l]c  Qhiolution  of  Cl)itrcl)  ittusic 

and  distress,  and  fighting  with  constancy 
against  fortune." 

Aristotle  goes  deeply  into  the  discus- 
sion on  the  power  of  musical  forms  over 
the  temper  and  feeling.  In  his  "Poli- 
tics "  he  refers  to  the  distinction  between 
music  that  is  ethical,  suited  to  action,  and 
music  that  inspires  religious  excitement. 
Both  Aristotle  and  Plato  recognize  the 
rhythms  also  of  music  as  important  moral 
elements,  and  Plato  declares  that  they 
should  not  be  varied  or  complex,  but 
must  be  the  "  rhythms  of  a  sober  and 
brave  life."  A  few  passages  from  later  au- 
thors and  thinkers  may  further  strengthen 
the  claim  that  music  exercises  a  powerful 
influence  over  the  heart,  elevating  and 
regulating  its  impulses  with  the  glow  of 
good  actions  or  the  grace  of  noble  prin- 
ciples. David  the  Psalmist  knew  this 
well,  and  the  poets  of  all  times  have  found 
it  out. 

14  There  was  a  Te  Deum  Dante  thought 
he  heard  in  accents  blended  with  sweet 
melody ;  the  strains  came  over  his  ear 
even  as  the   sound  of  choral  voices  that 


QL\)e  evolution  of  dTFjurcl)  iflnsic         19 

mingle  with  the  organ  in  solemn  chants." 
One  of  Goethe's  soul-communers  says  : 

"  One  pleasure  cheers  me  in  my  solitude, 
The  joy  of  song.     I  commune  with  myself, 
And  lull  with  soothing  tones  the  sense  of  pain, 
The  restless  longing,  the  unquiet  wish, 
Till  sorrow  oft  will  turn  to  ravishment, 
And  sadness'  self  to  harmony  divine." 

Cowper  wrote  : 

"  There  is  in  souls  a  sympathy  with  sounds  ; 
Some  chord  in  unison  with  that  we  hear 
It  touches  within  us,  and  the  heart  replies." 

Coleridge  pronounces  music  the  most 
entirely  human  of  the  fine  arts,  and  while 
he  traces  its  first  delightfulness  to  its 
accordance  with  the  ear,  he  goes  on  to  de- 
scribe it  as  nevertheless  an  "  associated  " 
thing  which  recalls  the  deep  emotion  of 
the  past  with  an  intellectual  sense  of  pro- 
portion. "  Every  human  feeling  is  greater 
and  larger  than  the  exciting  cause  —  a 
proof,  I  think,  that  man  was  designed  for 
music,  in  which  there  is  always  something 
more  and  beyond  the  immediate  expres- 
sion." 


20         t&[)t  (gwlntion  of  (2Tl)urch  Jttusic 

Milton  also  had  associated  music  with 
celestial  harmonies  when  he  wrote  that 
they 

"  May  with  sweetness  through  mine  ear 
Dissolve  me  into  ecstasies 
And  bring  all  heaven  before  mine  eyes." 

In  more  recent  days  Dr.  Channing,  in 
a  letter  to  Blanco  White,  says  :  "  I  am 
conscious  of  a  power  in  music  which  I 
want  words  to  describe.  It  touches  chords, 
reaches  depths  in  the  soul,  which  lie  be- 
yond all  other  influences.  It  extends  my 
consciousness,  and  nothing  in  my  experi- 
ence is  more  mysterious.  An  instinct  has 
always  led  me  to  transfer  it  to  heaven  ; 
and  I  suspect  the  Christian  under  its 
power  has  often  attained  to  a  singular 
consciousness  of  his  immortality." 

One  more  quotation  may  be  given,  in 
the  words  of  Charles  Kingsley  :  "  Music 
is  a  language  by  itself,  just  as  perfect  in 
its  way  as  speech,  as  words,  just  as  divine, 
just  as  blessed." 

The  delight  in  music  is  universal.  It  is 
discovered  in  all  races  and  in  all  ages.  It 
even  anticipates  terrestrial  history,  for  in 


QL\]c  Qfrjolntion  of  (Elinrcl)  ittusic         21 

the  Book  of  Job,  the  oldest  in  the  world, 
we  read  that  God  Himself,  in  His  chal- 
lenge to  His  desponding  and  distrustful 
servant,  said  :  "  Where  wast  thou  when  I 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  .  .  . 
when  the  morning  stars  sang  together  ?  " 

Music  has  been  called  "the  language  of 
heaven."  It  might,  perhaps,  better  be 
said  music  is  the  language  of  nature. 
The  winds  sing  in  their  own  way  ;  and  no 
ALolian  harp,  orchestra,  or  chorus  makes 
such  music  as  the  wind-swept  woods,  sing- 
ing brooks,  and  the  perpetual  diapason 
of  the  floods,  the  water-falls,  and  the  sea 
waves. 

"  The  idea  of  the  music  of  the  spheres 
has  now  a  far  grander,  because  more 
truthful,  application.  Periodicity  of  vibra- 
tion, which  distinguishes  musical  sound 
from  noise,  has  the  same  principle  of 
rhythmical  motion  which  controls  the 
revolutions  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  There 
are  sounds  far  too  subtle  for  perception 
by  the  human  ear ;  the  universe  itself  is  a 
musical  instrument,  and  the  orderly  or 
harmonious  procession  of  the  stars  is  but 


22         (£|)c  (KtJolotion  of  Clinrrl)  Jttnaic 

an  infinite  enlargement  of  the  phenomenon 
which  determines  the  pitch  of  every  note 
that  we  hear." 

The  very  youngest  child  is  lulled  and 
cheered  by  song  before  it  catches  the 
meaning  of  spoken  words,  and  often 
enough  little  children  can  sing  snatches 
of  melody  before  they  can  frame  sen- 
tences. At  all  events,  the  singing  spirit 
discovers  itself  early  in  childhood.  The 
short  cut  to  the  heart  seems  to  be  by  the 
ear,  and  the  heart  and  the  ear  are  in  close 
connection.  There  is  an  emotional  sig- 
nificance in  the  very  tone  of  the  voice. 
The  tone-language  is  the  universal  lan- 
guage known  and  read  by  all  hearts.  The 
accents  of  joy,  grief,  melancholy,  worship, 
or  even  hatred,  the  incoherent  screaming 
and  moaning,  the  threat,  the  war-whoop 
and  the  murderous  shriek,  these  are  un- 
mistakable everywhere  ;  and  through  such 
tones  men  and  women  find  a  common 
understanding  who  cannot  exchange  an 
intelligible  word.  Nature,  the  common 
universal  feeling  or  emotion,  will  out  and 
make  itself  understood  in  tone.     No  one 


®l)£  (Eoolntion  of  <2Tl)urch  iflnsic         23 

can  misunderstand  the  danger-signal,  the 
hiss  and  rattle  of  the  serpent  and  viper, 
the  snarl  and  scream  of  ferocious  beasts, 
or  the  shriek  of  the  devastating  tornado. 

It  would  be  an  interesting  digression  to 
study  the  human  voice  as  an  expositor  of 
human  character  and  morality.  The  per- 
sonality of  a  man,  or  a  woman,  finds  ex- 
pression in  the  voice.  Intuitively  we  ap- 
peal to  it  as  the  interpreter  of  inner  life. 
"  No  man  of  real  dignity,"  said  Aristotle, 
11  could  ever  be  shrill  of  speech." 

Little  children,  even  domestic  animals, 
are  drawn  or  repelled  by  the  quality  of 
the  voice,  and  it  is  wonderful  how  we 
agree  in  our  conclusion.  Who  fails  to 
understand  the  loving,  cheery,  inspiring, 
courageous  voice  ?  Then,  for  those  who 
have  ears  to  hear,  there  are  the  brutal, 
passion-laden,  ferocious,  sinister,  whee- 
dling, hypocritical  voices.  Indeed,  to  finely 
trained  listeners,  the  voice  is  a  trusty 
guide  of  the  emotional  and  moral  con- 
tents of  a  life,  whether  of  culture,  feeling, 
refinement,  spirituality,  reverence,  purity ; 
or,  on  the  contrary,  of  the  sorrowful  and 


24         ®l)£  ©Delation  of  (£l)ttrcl)  ittttsic 

multiform  phases  of  degradation  and  evil 
living. 

In  order  to  gain  a  proper  comprehen- 
sion of  the  evolution  of  music  from  the 
confused  sounds  issuing  from  the  gloom 
of  antiquity  to  the  elaborate  harmonies  of 
to-day,  it  seems  necessary  to  present  an 
outline  of  the  process.  In  our  brief  view 
of  the  subject  we  can  permit  ourselves 
only  a  dip,  here  and  there,  into  the  stream 
of  history,  and  to  mark  merely  the  princi- 
pal steps  in  its  development. 

The  cries  of  primitive  man  under  the 
stress  of  excitement  or  emotion  furnished 
what  may  be  called  the  raw  material  of 
music.  Nature  herself  prompted  them. 
The  yell  of  battle,  the  shout  of  triumph, 
the  plaint  of  grief,  the  murmurs  of  love, 
the  crooning  of  the  mother  over  her 
child — this  "  music  of  humanity  "  comes 
within  the  sphere  of  art  as  soon  as  it 
ceases  to  be  an  articulate  burst  of  natural 
feeling  and  assumes  a  definite  form,  how- 
ever crude  that  shape  may  be. 

Dancing,  which  as  naturally  expresses 
emotion,  must  inevitably  suggest  rhythm ; 


(Etje  (Etjolntion  of  (thnrcl)  ittnsic         25 

both  vocal  music  and  dancing  are  manifes- 
tations of  the  same  class  of  feelings,  and 
their  origin  was  very  likely  contemporane- 
ous. 

It  is  curious  to  trace  the  process  in 
which  instinct  groped  its  way  into  coherent 
musical  expression — into  even  the  vaguest 
tune.  One  of  the  most  important  ele- 
ments in  music  has  been  already  men- 
tioned, the  sense  of  rhythm  supplied  by 
the  motion  of  dancing ;  a  still  more  es- 
sential requisite  is  pitch.  We  must  place 
ourselves  in  imagination  in  the  time  be- 
fore the  invention  of  any  scale,  before  any 
successions  of  sounds  existed  having  a 
musical  relation  to  each  other.  How  did 
the  primeval  savage  puzzle  out  pitch  and 
scale  for  himself?  It  seems  as  if  accident 
might  have  suggested  the  interval  he 
chose  ;  and  then  by  reiteration  of  this,  and 
by  the  addition  of  a  sound  either  above  or 
below  this  one,  a  scale  of  two,  perhaps 
three,  notes  was  devised,  which  sufficed 
him  for  a  long  period.  In  order  to  deter- 
mine the  interval,  a  general  concordance 
as  to  its  agreeableness  was  necessary,  and 


26  QL\)c  ©tJolntion  cf  (SThnrcl)  ittusic 

also  it  is  likely  some  rude  instrument  of 
music  assisted  in  fixing  it. 

What  was  the  most  natural  interval  to 
choose  ?  Speaking  as  simply  as  possible 
on  a  technical  subject,  modern  scholars 
generally  consider  that  the  fourth  or  the 
fifth  is  the  note  most  likely  to  have  been 
hit  upon  by  the  untutored  ear  in  the  for- 
mation of  a  succession  of  musical  sounds 
as  agreeable  to  him.  These  intervals 
occur  in  almost  every  one  of  the  musical 
systems  of  the  world.  The  third  and  the 
sixth,  on  consideration,  seem  almost  im- 
possible ;  the  second  and  seventh  are  too 
variable  ;  and  it  seems  most  probable  that 
the  fourth  or  the  fifth  was  the  starting 
point. 

There  is  a  difficulty  in  perceiving  at 
first  why  the  fourth  should  have  been 
chosen  ;  it  seems  almost  as  difficult  to  find 
as  the  others.  To  elucidate  this  reason 
it  is  necessary  to  understand  that  melodic 
scales  and  harmonic  scales  are  quite  differ- 
ent, and  that  our  system  of  harmony  is  a 
purely  scholastic  product.  The  melodic 
scale  is  a  more  natural  one.     To  get  back 


&\)e  ©Dotation  of  (Eljurcl)  iflnsic         27 

to  the  status  of  the  savage  we  must  invert 
or  reverse  our  musical  habits.  It  is  our 
modern  system  which  makes  harmony  a 
vital  point.  In  the  music  of  aboriginal 
nations  melody  (not  harmony)  is  alone 
considered  ;  they  employ  only  the  melodic 
scale,  and  "  admit  a  single  line  of  tune  at 
a  time." 

We  have  so  long  thought  of  scales  as 
built  upward,  that  we  forget  that  they 
might  just  as  well  be  built  downward. 
In  fact,  in  all  melodic  systems  this  is  the 
case.  Those  who  have  studied  Oriental 
music  closely  have  observed  that  their 
scale  tends  downward,  and,  taken  in  con- 
nection with  other  facts,  it  is  believed  that 
this  is  the  primitive  practice.  In  proof  of 
this,  take  the  leading  note,  which  in  our 
harmonic  scale  tends  upward.  This  note 
is  always  employed  in  the  final  cadence, 
and  rises  upward  to  the  tonic,  or  key- 
note. Now,  the  natural  instinct  entirely 
reverses  this  process,  and  the  very  signifi- 
cance of  the  word  "  cadence"  implies  a 
falling  instead  of  a  rising  inflection.  The 
natural    cadence    in    speaking  also   tends 


28         <£!)£  GruohUion  of  <2Thnrcb  fttnsic 

downward.  It  is  only  in  expressions  of 
astonishment  or  in  questions  that  the 
voice  rises  at  the  end  of  the  sentence. 
"  Pure  vocal  art  follows  the  rule  of  the 
inflections  in  speaking ;  and  in  melodic 
systems,  which  are  so  much  influenced  by 
the  voice,  cadences  which  rise  to  the  final 
sound  are  almost  inconceivable."  To  im- 
agine, then,  that  our  primitive  man  sang 
his  few  notes  downward,  will  account 
more  easily  for  the  universal  use  of  the 
fourth  in  the  primitive  scales.  In  build- 
ing downward  this  interval  comes  natu- 
rally and  easily,  and  its  choice  in  the  first 
scales  is  accounted  for. 

Musicians  may  object  that  there  are  in- 
stances where  a  rising  fifth  was  chosen  as 
the  nucleus  of  the  scale  ;  but  the  instances 
are  too  few  to  affect  the  theory.  The 
Greek,  the  Japanese,  and  the  aboriginal 
Australian  scales,  are  all  formed  on  this 
feature  of  the  fourth  interval.  In  China, 
Java,  and  Oceanica  the  musical  systems 
employ  a  scale  of  five  notes  ;  the  scales  of 
India,  Persia,  Arabia,  Egypt,  Greece,  and 
Europe    include    seven   notes;   and   it    is 


&be  ©tjolntion  of  Cljurcl)  fttnsic  29 

generally  believed  that  in  these  scales  also 
the  fourth  was  the  interval  first  agreed 
upon. 

Note  by  note  the  first  scale  put  itself 
together  laboriously  and  slowly.  The 
earliest  recorded  one  consists  of  a  group 
of  only  three  notes;  the  two  farthest  apart 
making  the  interval  of  a  fourth,  and  the 
intervening  one  being  a  semitone  above 
the  lower  note.  Probably  the  use  of  some 
sort  of  instruments  preceded  any  formal 
arrangement  of  vocal  sounds.  These 
were  undoubtedly  percussion  sticks,  cala- 
bashes, and  tom-toms,  and  were  used  simply 
to  mark  the  time  of  the  dance.  Mankind 
had  probably  got  some  way  beyond  this 
when  Jubal  is  recorded  as  being  the  father 
of  those  who  handle  the  harp  and  the 
organ.  The  Hebrew  word  Aggab,  which 
was  translated  in  our  version  into  organ, 
was  more  probably  a  shepherd's  pipe,  cor- 
responding to  the  pipe  of  Pan  in  the 
Greek  mythology.  Consisting  at  first  of 
only  one  or  two,  it  afterward  comprised 
about  seven  pipes  made  of  reeds  and  dif- 
fering  from   each  other   in  length.     The 


30         QL\)t  ©Dotation  of  (Eljttrcl)  iHnsic 

ancient  Egyptians  not  only  employed 
flutes,  lyres,  and  many  other  instruments, 
but  it  has  been  proved  conclusively  by 
competent  authorities  that  this  wonderful 
people  were  as  fully  conversant  with  the 
diatonic  system  as  we  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  From  a  flute  and  other  in- 
struments found  in  the  tombs  it  has  been 
shown  that  nearly  three  thousand  years 
before  Christ  the  Egyptians  were  using 
every  note  which  we  employ  in  our  mod- 
ern music,  their  scale  being  the  same  as 
our  own  minor  scale.  It  is  to  them  in  all 
probability  that  we  are  indebted  for  our 
scale ;  the  Greeks  merely  learned  from 
them  the  elements  of  musical  science. 

About  600  b.c,  Egypt,  which  had  been 
impenetrably  closed  to  the  Greeks,  was 
thrown  open  to  them,  and  they  immedi- 
ately availed  themselves  of  the  opportu- 
nity afforded  for  discoveries.  From  this 
period  can  be  traced  the  great  advance  in 
all  those  arts  and  sciences  in  which  they 
so  signally  excelled.  The  Greeks  had 
four  principal  modes  or  scales,  the  inven- 
tion of  which  was  attributed  to  Pythag- 


STlie  (Evolution  of  <ETl)ttrcb  ittnsic         31 

oras.  By  a  tradition  it  was  said  that  he 
discovered  the  ratios  of  the  perfect  inter- 
vals by  hearing  some  smiths  strike  the 
iron  on  their  anvils  with  hammers  of  differ- 
ent weights.  "The  smithy  where  Pythag- 
oras worked  his  musical  problems  was 
the  land  of  Egypt,  whence  he  imported 
his  learning  into  Greece."  As  I  have 
already  mentioned,  the  principal  scales  of 
this  system  were  named  Dorian,  Phrygian, 
Lydian,  and  ^olian.  To  these  they  added 
others,  taking  the  fourth  above  or  below 
the  tonic  for  the  new  keynote,  and  desig- 
nating the  scales  thus  formed  by  the  pre- 
fixes Hypo,  Mixo,  etc.,  as  Hypo-Dorian, 
Mixo-Lydian.  To  each  note  belonged  a 
special  character  of  subject  which  was 
assigned  to  the  different  qualities  of 
voices.  The  majestic  style,  being  suited 
to  a  bass,  would  be  sung  in  the  Dorian  ; 
for  tender  sentiments,  assigned  to  a  tenor 
voice,  the  Lydian  mode  would  be  used. 
"Follow,"  says  one  of  their  poets,  "nei- 
ther a  highly  strung  music  nor  the  low- 
pitched  Ionian,  but  turn  over  the  mid- 
dle  ploughland    to    an    ^Eolian    in    your 


32  ®ljc  evolution  of  <£l)nrcl)  ittnsic 

melody."  Socrates  and  Plato  both  con- 
demned the  use  of  "  slack  or  low-pitched 
modes,  because  they  do  not  incite  to  vir- 
tue and  courage." 

Sappho  had  her  share  in  improving 
the  Greek  scale,  as  she  contributed  one 
to  the  Pythagorean  system  ;  but  the  great- 
est of  all  improvements  was  made  by 
Claudius  Ptolemy  in  139  a.d.  He  enun- 
ciated the  law  that  the  major  tone  should 
be  below  the  minor,  and  this  principle 
directs  the  intonation  of  our  present  scale. 
The  musical  system  was  purely  a  melodic 
one,  harmony  not  being  evolved  until 
much  later ;  in  fact,  until  Christian  Church 
music  had  attained  some  development. 

Music  included,  among  the  Greeks, 
everything  that  belonged  to  a  higher  in- 
tellectual and  artistic  education.  Music 
in  a  narrower  sense  was  regarded  by  the 
Greeks  not  only  as  an  agreeable  amuse- 
ment, but  also  as  one  of  the  most  effec- 
tive means  of  cultivating  the  feelings  and 
the  character.  Plato,  in  his  "  Republic," 
while  discussing  education,  says,  "  Can  we 
find    any    better   than    the    old-fashioned 


(Efie  Groolntion  of  (dlinrelj  iflnsir         33 

text,  Gymnastic  for  the  body,  and  Music 
for  the  soul?"  and  adds,  "When  you 
speak  of  music,  do  you  rank  literature 
under  music  or  not  ?  I  do."  (Seyffarth's 
"  Dictionary  of  Classical  Antiquities.") 

This  attempt  to  describe  Greek  music, 
which  is  an  exceedingly  obscure  subject, 
may  be  made  clearer,  at  least  as  to  the 
effect  it  produced,  by  quoting  from  Mr. 
Herbert  Passy's  excellent  analysis  of  it. 
He  says  :  "  It  is  tolerably  certain  that  the 
artistic  standard  of  the  music  of  the 
Greeks  was  very  far  behind  their  stand- 
ard of  observation  and  general  intelli- 
gence. They  spent  much  ingenious 
thought  upon  the  analysis  of  their  scales, 
and  theorized  a  good  deal  upon  the  nature 
of  combinations  which  they  did  not  use  ; 
but  their  account  of  their  music  itself  is 
so  vague  that  it  is  difficult  to  get  any 
clear  idea  of  what  it  was  really  like. 

11  The  limitations  of  their  systems  were 
such  as  do  not  encourage  a  belief  in  high 
artistic  development,  for  at  no  time  did 
the  scheme  extend  much  beyond  what 
could  be  reproduced  upon  the  white  keys 
3 


34         &t)£  ©tjolntion  of  <2Tl)ttrch  ittnsic 

of  the  piano  and  an  occasional  B  b  and  C#, 
and  all  the  notes  used  were  comprised 
within  the  limits  of  the  low  A  in  the  bass 
stave  and  the  E  at  the  top  of  the  treble 
stave.  The  first  records  indicate  the  time 
when  the  relations  of  three  notes  only 
were  understood,  which  stood  in  much  the 
same  relation  to  one  another  that  A,  F,  E 
do  in  our  modern  system,  sung  down- 
ward." 

This  was  called  the  tetrachord  of  Olym- 
pus. In  time,  the  note  between  A  and  F 
was  added  (the  note  we  call  G  had  been 
wanting),  which  gave  a  natural  flow  down 
from  A  to  E.  This  was  recognized  as 
the  Doric  tetrachord,  the  first  nucleus  of 
the  Greek  system.  It  was  enlarged  by  the 
simple  process  of  adding  another  group 
of  notes  which  corresponded  exactly  to 
the  first,  such  as  E,  D,  C,  B,  below  or 
above,  thereby  making  a  balance  to  the 
other  tetrachord.  In  course  of  time  sim- 
ilar groups  of  notes,  called  tetrachords, 
were  added  one  after  another,  till  the 
whole  range  of  sounds  which  the  Greeks 
considered  suitable  for  the   human  voice 


QLl)e  (Soolntion  of  <£l)nrcl)  Iflnsic  35 

was  mapped  out.  The  whole  extent  of 
this  scale  being  only  from  B  in  the  bass 
stave  to  A  in  the  treble  indicates  that  the 
Greeks  preferred  to  use  only  the  middle 
portion  of  the  voice,  and  disliked  both  the 
high  and  low  extremes  which  could  only 
be  produced  with  effort ;  and  it  proves 
also  that  their  music  could  not  have  been 
of  an  excitable  or  passionate  cast,  because 
the  use  of  notes  which  imply  any  degree 
of  agitation  is  excluded. 


JDetJelopment  of  tlje  ittnsic  of  tlje  (Earls  Christian 


"  But  let  my  due  feet  never  fail 
To  walk  the  studious  cloister's  pale, 
And  love  the  high  embowered  roof, 
With  antique  pillars  mossy  proof, 
And  storied  windows  richly  dight, 
Casting  a  dim  religious  light — 
There  let  the  pealing  organ  blow 
To  the  full-voiced  choir  below 
In  service  high  and  anthems  clear 
As  may  with  sweetness,  through  mine  ear, 
Dissolve  me  into  ecstasies, 
And  bring  all  heaven  before  mine  eyes." 

— Milton. 


Chapter  2 

If  music  is  the  expression  of  human 
emotion,  does  it  not  follow  naturally  that 
sacred  music  should  be  the  expression  of 
purely  religious  emotion  ?  If  it  predom- 
inantly expresses  any  other  feeling,  it 
cannot  be  sacred  music.  We  are  there- 
fore not  content  that  certain  tunes  should 
have  been  written  for  the  Church  ;  we 
contend,  further,  that  their  composers 
should  be  those  who  in  their  own  souls 
have  experienced  the  emotions  they  mu- 
sically express  so  as  to  arouse  similar 
emotions  in  others. 

"  If  you  wish  to  touch  my  heart,"  writes 
Horace  to  the  poets,  "  you  must  begin  by 
showing  me  that  you  .  have  touched  your 
own."  There  is  no  thought  which  has 
ever  excited  love  and  reverence  in  the 
hearers  which  has  not  sprung  from  a 
fount  of  love  and  reverence  in  its  creator ; 
and  we  maintain  that  a  person  devoid  of 


40         QLtyc  (Etjointicm  of  <2IhurcI)  ittttsic 

spiritual  discernment  and  spiritual  life, 
unstirred  and  uninfluenced  by  religious 
emotion,  cannot  express  musically,  or 
otherwise,  an  emotion  to  which  he  is  him- 
self a  stranger. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  religious 
feeling  was  one  of  the  earliest  motives 
for  calling  music  into  existence.  Love, 
ecstasy,  and  devotion  are  states  of  mind 
most  liable  to  foster  a  musical  utterance. 

Sir  John  Hullah,  in  his  lectures,  says  : 

"The  first  public  use  of  music  by  every 
people  has  been  in  religious  rites  and 
ceremonies.  The  means  presented  by  the 
art  of  amplifying  and  prolonging  cere- 
monial ;  of  raising  and  sustaining  in  great 
multitudes  a  similar  state  of  feeling,  and 
of  giving  simultaneous  expression  to  this 
feeling — these  qualities  have  at  all  times 
recommended  music  to  those  on  whom 
the  duty  of  arranging  rites  and  ceremo- 
nies has  fallen." 

We  know  that  choral  symphonies 
adorned  the  gorgeous  ritual  of  the  Jewish 
temple,  that  hymns  to  Apollo  and  Dio- 
nysus rose  in  the  clear  air  of  Greece  from 


ftlje  (Euolntion  of  (Ulinrcl)  illusic         41 

Delphos  ;  doubtless,  therefore,  the  sacred 
songs  and  chants  of  the  early  Christians 
were  derived  from  traditions  both  of  He- 
brew and  Greek  origin.  We  have  no 
authentic  record  of  the  kind  of  music  in 
use  among  them.  "  Certain  strains,  short 
fragments  of  melody,  have  come  down  to 
us,  which  belong  to  a  remote  antiquity, 
and  which  have  undergone  little  if  any 
alteration.  These  strains — tones,  tunes, 
or  chants  as  they  are  indifferently  called — 
were  not  yet  metrical." 

The  type  of  these  primitive  hymns  is 
most  like  the  "  Sanctus  "  and  the  "  Gloria  " 
of  our  Eucharistic  service.  It  is  natural 
to  suppose  that  strains  like  these  would 
have  been  used  in  a  very  remote  age  by 
every  people.  The  human  voice  under 
the  influence  of  strong  and  deep  feeling 
naturally  utters  it  in  something  not  unlike 
the  tuneless  music  of  the  Latin  Church. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  trace  the  process,  to 
inquire  how  first  the  solemn  monotone, 
next  occasional  changes  of  pitch,  and 
lastly  ornaments  and  graces,  came  to  be  a 
part  of  the  music.     If  such  a  monotone 


42  QL\\z  (EoohUion  of  Cbnrcl)  Jttnsic 

be  used  by  generation  after  generation,  it 
will  crystallize  into  a  cantillation  or  rude 
sort  of  chant.  This  is  proved  by  the  his- 
tory of  our  early  church  plain-song. 

One  of  the  features  which  distinguishes 
the  Christian  religion  from  almost  all 
others  in  its  quietness  ;  it  aims  to  repress 
the  outward  signs  of  inward  feeling.  Sav- 
age instinct,  and  the  religion  of  Greece 
also,  had  employed  the  rhythmic  dance 
and  all  kinds  of  gesticulatory  motions  to 
express  the  inner  feelings,  some  of  them 
entirely  unsuitable  to  purposes  of  worship. 
The  early  Christians  discouraged  all  out- 
ward signs  of  excitement,  and  from  the 
very  beginning,  in  the  music  they  used, 
reproduced  the  spirit  of  their  religion — 
an  inward  quietude.  All  the  music  em- 
ployed in  their  early  services  was  vocal, 
and  the  rhythmic  element  and  all  gesticu- 
lations were  forbidden. 

Now,  this  condition  was  one  of  the  most 
favorable  for  the  development  of  harmony, 
very  little  of  which  is  needed  for  dance 
music.  The  world,  indeed,  could  go  on 
dancing  forever,  and  do  without  harmony 


QL\)c  (Eoolntion  of  (Elinrcli  iJflnsic         43 

entirely  ;  the  simplest  tune  will  serve  to 
keep  step.  But  when  voices  of  different 
pitch  sing  a  long  sustained  phrase,  even 
of  the  vaguest  melody,  there  is  an  instinc- 
tive craving  for  harmony  ;  it  is  so  impera- 
tively demanded  that  it  seems  as  if  instinct 
itself  must  produce  the  chord. 

The  Christian  Church  first  took  up  the 
antiphonal  method  of  singing ;  this  was 
at  the  earliest  period  of  which  we  have 
any  knowledge.  It  was  borrowed  from 
Jewish  and  Syrian  customs,  for  it  was  not 
Greek.  In  Greece,  antiphon  was  under- 
stood as  the  singing  a  melody  by  men  an 
octave  lower  than  it  is  sung  at  the  same 
time  by  boys  ;  the  process  has  been  mis- 
called by  us  "singing  in  unison."  Among 
the  Christians  it  meant  the  responsive 
singing  of  two  choirs,  and  we  know  it  was 
practised  in  the  first  century  from  the 
report  received  by  the  Emperor  Trajan  in 
the  year  no  a.d.  He  had  sent  out  to 
Pliny  the  Younger  to  inquire  into  the 
practices  of  the  people  called  Christians. 
In  his  report  Pliny  stated  that  their  chief 
error   or   fault  was  that    on  certain  days 


44         &t)£  evolution  of  (Etjarcl)  Jttasie 

they  assembled  before  daylight,  and  were 
accustomed  to  sing  alternately  among 
themselves  a  hymn  to  Christ  as  God. 

The  ancient  Church  undoubtedly  availed 
itself  of  the  Greek  formulas  in  its  early 
music.  For  parts  of  the  service  they  pos- 
sessed certain  melodies,  of  a  few  notes 
only,  which  were  handed  down  by  ear 
from  one  generation  to  another.  Not- 
withstanding their  indefinite  form,  they 
were  scrupulously  preserved  intact ;  few 
alterations  being  permitted,  because,  being 
a  part  of  worship,  the  people  came  to  con- 
sider them  sacred  in  themselves,  as  is 
always  the  case  with  whatever  is  associated 
with  ritual.  With  the  lapse  of  time,  how- 
ever, changes  gradually  stole  in  ;  with  the 
increase  of  churches,  customs  became 
less  uniform,  and  the  diversities  and  de- 
partures from  the  rubric  became  so  numer- 
ous that  the  Church  authorities  perceived 
the  necessity  of  writing  the  Church  music 
in  a  permanent  form  which  should  estab- 
lish a  usage  common  to  all.  Naturally 
those  forms  which  had  the  best  and  oldest 
credentials  were  selected. 


(Elje  (Eoolntion  of  Chnrcli  Ittnsic  45 

It  is  to  St.  Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan, 
that  the  credit  belongs  of  having  made 
the  first  arrangement  of  sacred  music. 
For  four  hundred  years  tradition  alone 
had  ruled  the  tuneless  and  unrhythmical 
melody  used  in  the  services ;  it  was  in  the 
fourth  century  that  the  Church  acknowl- 
edged its  connection  with  the  Greek  sys- 
tem, and  openly  adopted  its  signs  and 
method.  Whether  Ambrose  did  or  did 
not  accomplish  all  that  a  pious  faith  has 
given  him  credit  for,  the  practical  conclu- 
sion for  us  is  that,  at  this  period,  a  new 
set  of  scales  began  to  be  used,  based 
certainly  upon  the  complicated  system  of 
Greece,  but  simplified  so  as  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  a  very  rude  people.  Am- 
brose adopted  the  responsive  singing, 
between  two  choirs,  of  the  verses  of  the 
Psalms,  and  he  also  rearranged  the  hymns 
for  the  regular  services  of  the  Church.  It 
is  a  very  pretty  legend  that  some  of  the 
Ambrosian  hymns  have  come  down  to  us ; 
that  O  Ltcx  Beata  Trinitas  from  "  Hymns 
Ancient  and  Modern,"  and  Jam  Lucis,  the 
morning  hymn,  "  Now  that  the  Daylight 


46         QL\)c  (Evolution  of  <2TI)txrcl)  Muoic 

Fills  the  Sky,"  are  the  compositions  of 
Ambrose.  But  recent  students  will  not 
allow  us  the  indulgence  of  this  poetical 
belief,  and  insist  that  no  melodies  so  de- 
fined belong  to  the  era  of  St.  Ambrose. 
That  he  attained  some  measure  of  suc- 
cess, however,  is  proved  by  the  testimony 
of  St.  Augustine,  who  tells  us  in  his 
"  Confessions,"  that  he  was  moved  to 
tears  as  he  heard  these  hymns  sung  by 
the  great  congregation  in  the  Church 
of  Milan. 

St.  Ambrose  founded  his  system  on  that 
of  the  Greeks,  adopting  the  keynotes  of 
the  Phrygian  (D  to  D),  Dorian  (E  to  E), 
Hypo-Lydian  (F  to  F),  and  Hypo-Phry- 
gian (G  to  G)  scales,  which  henceforth 
were  called  the  "  authentic"  scales. 

The  first  attempts  at  musical  notation 
were  called  Neunes,  and  are  traced  back  to 
about  this  period.  The  name  is  as  weird 
as  the  characters  themselves,  which  bear 
no  resemblance  whatever  to  our  present 
notes,  and  look  more  like  Chinese  writing 
or  stenographic  outlines.  They  served, 
however,  to  designate  the    inflections   of 


®fK  (ffoolntion  of  (Eljtircl)  ittnsic         47 

the  voice.  Two  centuries  passed  before 
the  next  improvement  was  finally  devel- 
oped. To  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  Bishop 
of  Rome,  509-604,  have  been  ascribed 
four  important  reforms — the  compilation 
of  an  antiphonary,  the  founding  of  a 
musical  school  at  Rome,  the  invention  of 
a  system  of  music  peculiar  to  the  Church, 
and  the  introduction  of  notation  by  means 
of  Roman  letters.  He  rearranged  the 
11  Ambrosian  "  hymns,  with  their  melodies, 
and  his  reform  is  known  as  Gregorian 
from  its  authors  name.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  some  modern  scholars  insist 
that  neither  Ambrose  nor  Gregory  was 
capable  of  constructing  the  systems  which 
bear  their  names,  and  that  they  were  grad- 
ually developed,  being  the  heritage  of 
church  and  lay  folk  alike.  The  words 
Ambrosian  and  Gregorian  may  have  meant 
simply  "use" — the  "  use  of  Milan"  and 
the  "use  of  Rome."  At  any  rate,  it  was 
from  this  date  the  change  took  shape. 
To  the  "  authentic "  scales  of  Ambrose 
were  added  four  subordinate  scales  which 
were  called  plagal,  a  word  that  may  be 


48         &!)£  (guolntion  of  (Eljiml)  ittnsic 

translated  athwart  or  oblique.  From  that 
time,  not  only  have  the  chants  still  in  use 
borne  the  name  of  Gregory,  but  every  va- 
riety of  ecclesiastical  melody,  technically 
called  plain-song,  is  popularly  called  Gre- 
gorian music.  The  scales  as  formed  by 
Gregory  ranged  from  A  to  A,  and  the 
eight,  the  four  authentic  and  the  four 
plagal,  were  then  called  church  modes. 

The  ancient  plain-song,  coming  down 
from  the  times  of  Gregory,  breathes  the 
deepest  spirituality  of  a  cloistered  life,  the 
life  of  self-abnegation  and  self-sacrifice.  It 
makes  little  difference  where  you  hear  this 
music,  or  what  may  be  the  circumstances 
and  surroundings  ;  you  feel,  from  the  very 
emotions  that  it  excites  in  your  own  heart, 
the  images  called  before  your  mind,  that 
you  are  listening  to  sacred  music. 

It  is  undeniable  that  it  possesses  a  sen- 
suous charm  capable  of  inducing  deep  reli- 
gious fervor.  This  impression  may  be 
produced  by  the  avoidance  of  the  semi- 
tones in  these  scales.  Again,  the  strange 
dislike  of  employing  the  third  of  the  tonic, 
especially  in  ascending  passages,   invests 


&f)e  GntJolntion  of  dhntrli  fflnsic         49 

Gregorian  melodies  with  an  undefinable 
and  mystical  character.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  in  these  solemn  strains 
no  attention  was  paid  to  time.  That  was 
developed  still  later.  Another  circum- 
stance which  may  heighten  the  effect  of 
solemnity  and  mystery  produced  by  these 
plain-song  chants  is  the  fact  that  they 
rarely  if  ever  end  on  their  final.  The 
mind  is  left  in  a  state  of  suspense,  of  ex- 
pectation. The  music  has  a  quality  which 
seems  intrinsically  sacred.  The  influence 
under  which  it  was  written  resembles  the 
same  state  of  deep  religious  feeling  which 
gave  birth  to  the  measured,  rhythmical 
chorales  of  Germany.  The  very  structure 
and  rhythm  of  the  music  is  full  of  the  spirit 
of  reverence. 

The  next  writer  to  take  a  step  in  the 
evolution  was  Hucbald,  a  monk  of  Flan- 
ders, in  the  tenth  century.  Hucbald 
puzzled  out  a  new  method  of  notation 
which  was  a  little  simpler  than  the  clumsy 
and  confusing  neunes  which  had  previously 
prevailed.  It  occurred  to  him  to  arrange 
any  number  of  parallel  lines  to  suit  the 
4 


50         i&lje  (Koolution  of  (Efjnrcl)  fttttsic 

requirements  of  either  the  voice  or  the 
instrument ;  and  to  the  left  of  these  lines  he 
placed  the  letters  T  for  tone,  and  S  for 
semitone,  to  indicate  whether  the  sound 
proceeded  by  the  one  or  by  the  other.  He 
placed  his  signs  for  the  notes  on  the  spaces 
between  the  lines ;  the  notes  were  not 
placed  on  the  lines  until  later.  The  num- 
ber of  the  lines  was  regulated  by  the  parts 
required  and  by  the  extent  of  the  scale. 
Sometimes  there  were  as  many  as  sixteen 
lines,  sometimes  only  six.  This  bore  no 
resemblance  to  modern  notation,  yet  it 
seems  to  foreshadow  the  modern  stave. 

Before  the  time  of  Hucbald  all  church 
music  had  been  what  is  called  homophonic, 
or  consisting  of  one  part  only.  Harmony 
now  began  to  appear  vaguely.  It  may 
first  have  occurred  to  musical  ears  from 
the  responsive  singing  of  two  choirs  where 
the  second  took  up  the  phrase  before  the 
first  had  dropped  it,  thus  suggesting  the 
simultaneous  singing  of  the  part.  It  took 
its  first  shape,  however,  under  Hucbald  ; 
he  called  the  second  part,  which  accom- 
panied   the    plain    chant,    the    organum. 


QLl)e  <ff  Dotation  of  CHjnrcl)  iHnoic         51 

and  this  name  was  retained  in  church 
music  for  centuries.  It  consisted  anciently 
in  a  second  part  written  a  fourth  or  fifth 
below  and  concluding  with  two  unisons  ; 
or  in  prolonging  one  note — the  tonic,  for 
instance — while  the  voice  moved  up  and 
down  in  other  directions.  This  last  form 
was  like  what  we  call  the  pedal  note.  He 
arranged  his  scale  in  groups  of  four  notes, 
still  retaining  the  name  of  tetrachords  ;  in 
each  of  these  the  semitone  always  fell  be- 
tween the  second  and  third  note.  The 
disposition  of  the  semitone  was  most 
puzzling  to  the  old  musicians ;  it  had  al- 
ready at  this  history  of  the  scale  passed 
through  three  stages. 

Hucbald's  system  was  approved  by  the 
Church,  and  was  called  the  "  sacred  or- 
ganum." Another  method,  known  as  the 
11  profane  organum,"  was  also  in  use, 
which  introduced  thirds  and  seconds,  and 
was  possibly  a  shade  less  discordant  than 
the  sacred  organum.  The  transition  from 
abstract  theory  to  agreeable  tonal  effect 
was  made  by  almost  imperceptible  steps. 
The     attempts    at     part-singing    of    the 


52  &l)c  (gooiation  of  (Eljarclj  fflusic 

Middle  Ages  were  certainly  characterized 
by  no  inner  sense  of  joyfulness,  but  were 
rather  the  product  of  theoretical  rules 
and  the  requirements  of  musical  practice. 
Their  distinguishing  feature  was  extreme 
harshness.  Hucbald  urged  the  persever- 
ing practice  of  the  uneuphonious  fourths 
and  fifths  with  great  courage  and  enthu- 
siasm, but  recommending  repeatedly  a 
moderate  time  in  singing,  in  which  the 
fifths  and  fourths,  if  not  altogether  har- 
monious, were  a  little  less  offensive  than 
in  a  quicker  movement.  "  If  two  or  more 
persons,"  he  said,  u  fervently  sing  accord- 
ing to  my  system,  the  blending  of  the 
voices  will  be  most  agreeable."  No  doubt 
the  elucidation  of  real  harmony  was  helped 
by  these  crude  attempts  ;  but  the  historical 
critic,  noting  the  constant  references  to 
the  "  sweetness "  of  the  uncouth  chords, 
has  frequently  questioned  whether  the 
"  sacred  organum "  can  have  been  faith- 
fully transmitted  to  us.  Careful  investi- 
gation, however,  has  proved  that  it  was 
meekly  endured  by  patient  auditors  for 
no  less  than  two  centuries.     One  church- 


®l)e  ©tiolntion  of  Cbnrd)  ittnsic         53 

man  did  venture  to  observe  sarcastically, 
14  that  the  organum  was  probably  regarded 
as  a  penance  for  the  ear ; "  and  it  may 
have  been  really  a  sort  of  punishment  of 
the  flesh,  because  at  this  period  all  sensu- 
ous beauty  (and  therefore  musical  eupho- 
ny) was  supposed  to  come  from  the  evil 
one.  Mr.  Passy  makes  a  very  interesting 
observation  in  connection  with  the  early 
developments  of  harmonic  music  in  the 
Christian  Church. 

"The  harmonic  phrase  of  music,"  he 
says,  "  has  been  exactly  coeval  with  that 
particular  kind  of  intellectual  disposition 
which  continued  to  manifest  itself  more 
and  more  as  modern  Europe  slowly 
emerged  from  the  chaos  which  followed 
the  collapse  of  the  Roman  Empire.  It  is 
as  if  harmony — the  higher  intellectual 
factor  in  music — began  with  the  first  glim- 
merings of  modern  mental  development, 
and  grew  more  and  more  elaborate  and 
comprehensive,  and  more  adapted  to  high 
degrees  of  expression  and  design,  simul- 
taneously with  the  growth  of  man's  intel- 
lectual powers." 


54         &l)£  evolution  of  <El)tircb  iHneic 

No  signs  for  regulating  the  duration  of 
notes  were  yet  invented.  In  the  primitive 
music  of  the  Church  these  had  not  been 
necessary  :  the  discretion  of  the  performer 
settled  the  question  how  long  they  should 
be  ;  but  when  different  ideas  as  to  har- 
monizing began  to  prevail,  and  individual 
singers  to  improvise  accompaniments  of 
their  own,  it  became  so  difficult  to  keep 
the  voices  together  that  musicians  were 
driven  to  invent  signs  to  indicate  how  long 
the  singers  should  hold  the  notes.  They 
gave  out  the  most  puzzling  and  compli- 
cated directions.  There  was  no  bass  to  the 
music  of  the  time  ;  when  two  parts  were 
added  to  the  plain  chant,  the  calculations 
to  produce  concord  were  very  arduous  ; 
and  to  add  them  so  as  to  make  an  ordi- 
nary piece  of  four-part  writing,  was  con- 
sidered to  be  a  feat  of  almost  superhuman 
concentration. 

But  tributaries  continually  came  to 
swell  the  broadening  stream  of  knowl- 
edge. The  principal  one  had  its  source 
far  to  the  south  of  Hucbald's  monastery, 
in  a  Benedictine  convent  near   Ravenna. 


QL\)c  ©Dotation  of  <£l)tircl)  ittnsic         55 

One  of  its  brotherhood,  Guido  of  Arezzo, 
unquestionably  added  greatly  to  the  grow- 
ing fund  of  science,  and  advanced  mate- 
rially the  theory  and  practice  of  the  art. 
But  again  the  modern  scholar  ruthlessly 
shatters  a  tradition — that  of  our  indebted- 
ness to  Guido.  He  denies  that  Guido 
was  the  inventor  of  the  staff ;  of  the  shape 
of  the  pointed  notes ;  of  the  placing  of 
signs,  or  notes,  upon  the  lines  ;  of  the  use 
of  closed  lines  ;  and,  finally,  of  the  system 
of  syllables  called  solfeggi — ut,  re,  mi,  fa, 
sol  Perhaps  all  these  advances  were  the 
gradual  accretions  of  a  common  fund  of 
knowledge  ;  but  it  has  long  been  the  habit 
of  writers,  when  referring  to  the  Middle 
Ages,  to  single  out  one  prominent  name 
and  ascribe  to  it  all  the  acquisitions  made 
by  the  art,  omitting  any  adequate  mention 
of  less  prominent  laborers  in  the  field.  All 
these  improvements  took  shape  in  Guido's 
century,  and  clustered  around  his  name.  If 
he  did  not  first  invent  the  system  of  solmi- 
zation,  or  use  of  the  syllables  ut,  re,  etc.,  it 
was  no  doubt  the  result  of  his  teachings 
noted    down    by  his  pupils ;  and  we   are 


56  &l)e  (£t)0ltttion  of  <2Tl)tircl)  ittusic 

unable  to  disassociate  his  name  from  the 
system,  because  it  accords  with  several 
principles  which  it  is  well  known  were 
established  by  him. 

For  the  first  six  tones  of  the  scales, 
beginning  with  C  at  the  tonic,  Guido  sub- 
stituted the  syllables  ut,  re,  mi,  fa,  sol,  la. 
They  were  taken  from  a  hymn  in  constant 
use  addressed  to  St.  John  Baptist : 

£//queant  laxis, 
ifcsonare  fibris, 
Mira.  gestorum, 
Tumuli  tuorum, 
Solve,  polluti, 
Labn  reattim, 

Sancte  Johannes. 

11  No  difficulty  connected  with  the  musi- 
cal art  is  paramount  to  one  which  may  be 
briefly  described  as  heariiig  with  the  eyes, 
or,  conversely,  seeing  with  the  ear ;  in 
other  words,  knowing  the  sound  of  a 
musical  passage  at  sight  of  the  charac- 
ters which  express  it.  This  was  made 
practicable  by  Guido's  invention.  Up  to 
his  time,  it  had  taken  years  to  form  a 
chorister ;    he    made    it    the   work    of   a 


Qlt)t  (Eoolntion  of  (Eljnrclj  fflnsic         57 

few  months.  By  his  syllables  the  singer 
learned  to  fix  the  pitch  of  each  tone  in 
his  mind,  associating-  tone  and  syllable 
together."  The  syllable  ut  was  afterward 
replaced  in  Italy  by  do,  but  it  is  still 
retained  in  France.  Si  was  added  by  a 
Flemish  monk  in  1600.  Guido's  scale  was 
written  in  hexachords,  or  groups  of  six 
notes  in  succession,  instead  of  in  the 
tetrachords  previously  employed.  It  had 
a  range  of  two  and  one-half  octaves,  and 
included  seven  hexachords.  It  was  clumsy 
and  inaccurate,  but  still  it  was  an  improve- 
ment on  the  methods  known  up  to  that 
time,  and  it  continued  to  be  used  from  the 
eleventh  to  the  sixteenth  century,  when 
our  modern  heptatonic  scale,  comprising 
seven  notes,  came  into  existence. 

The  mediaeval  churchmen  had  ideas 
about  harmony  which  seem  very  peculiar 
to  us.  One  was  their  curious  dislike  of 
the  third  of  the  tonic.  To  our  ears  no 
final  chord  is  satisfactory  which  does  not 
contain  it ;  to  them  it  was  disagreeable  if 
it  did.  We  find  chords  containing  con- 
secutive fourths  and  fifths  most  discordant, 


58         &l)£  (Etioltttion  of  (JEbtrrcI)  itttisic 

but  when  they  attempted  more  than  sing- 
ing one  line  of  tune  they  doubled  the 
melody  a  fourth  below  or  a  fifth  above. 
It  is  an  odd  circumstance  that  this  combi- 
nation is  still  adopted  in  some  parts  of 
Europe  by  street  singers,  and  it  is  the 
only  thing  at  all  like  harmony  in  Japanese 
music.  It  appears,  then,  to  be  a  natural 
process  in  the  evolution  of  harmony.  Per- 
haps Japanese  music,  if  it  escape  the 
influence  of  Europe,  may  go  through  the 
same  stages  of  development  as  those  of 
mediaeval  European  music. 

In  Guido's  hexachordal  system  the 
semitone  again  changed  its  place,  falling 
now  between  the  third  and  fourth  intervals 
instead  of  the  second  and  third  of  Hue- 
bald's  system  of  tetrachords.  It  was  thus 
raised  a  degree  higher.  The  gamut,  named 
from  the  Greek  letter  Gamma  and  the  first 
syllable  tit,  thus  regarded  the  scale  as  a 
hexachord,  a  succession  of  six  notes,  and 
not  as  an  octachord,  or  succession  of  eight 
like  our  modern  one ;  and  it  employed 
both  letters  and  syllables.  The  former  it 
made    invariable,    but    the    latter    were 


&f)£  (Evolution  of  C^urcl)  iUtisie         59 

forced  to  change  according  to  key ;  and 
when  the  melody  moved  over  the  range 
of  more  than  one  hexachord  it  was  neces- 
sary that  the  tones  of  the  added  hexa- 
chord should  be  renamed,  so  that  the 
semitone,  that  ever  troublesome  quantity, 
should  fall  in  its  proper  place.  In  ascend- 
ing passages  the  singer  had  to  remember 
to  change  it  in  one  way,  and  when  the 
melody  descended  he  had  to  remember  to 
reverse  the  performance.  Any  one  famil- 
iar with  our  simple  modern  method  can 
perceive  how  confusing  this  was  ;  it  had 
its  name,  mutation,  but  that  made  the 
thing  no  easier.  It  was  such  a  burden  to 
the  memory  that  solmzzation  was  regarded 
by  the  choristers  of  that  age  as  their  cross 
of  tribulation,  and  was  even  named  by 
some  as  such,  "  Crux  et  tormentum  pue- 
rorum." 

Guido  was  also  the  author  of  many 
books  on  the  theory  of  music  ;  but  unlike 
many  of  his  clerical  brethren,  he  regarded 
music  not  as  a  science  solely  ;  he  felt  it  to 
be  an  art,  for  he  says :  "  The  musician 
must  so  arrange  his  song  that  it  is  but  the 


60         ®!)£  (Euoltition  of  QTh)tirc!)  JHtisic 

reflection  of  the  words.  If  the  melody  be 
for  youths,  there  must  be  an  exuberance 
of  cheerfulness  ;  if  for  old  age,  a  fretful 
seriousness."  Guido  was  far  in  advance 
of  his  time  in  uttering  this  golden  truth. 
It  was  reserved  for  a  much  later  era  to 
perceive  that  music  and  words  must  be 
united,  as  in  song,  so  that  the  words  will 
awaken  certain  emotions,  or  trains  of 
emotions,  which  the  music  is  all-powerful 
to  illustrate  and  deepen.  Very  often, 
indeed,  while  the  words  are  being  uttered 
the  music  has  already  passed  into  depths 
of  emotional  feeling  beyond  the  expres- 
sion or  control  of  words. 

One  of  the  inscrutable  things  for  the 
modern  student  is  the  lateness  at  which 
notation  was  devised  for  defining  the  rela- 
tive length  of  musical  sounds.  The  earli- 
est of  the  musical  faculties  is  the  sense  of 
rhythm  ;  yet  centuries  rolled  over  Chris- 
tendom before  any  attempt  was  made  to 
indicate  the  length  of  the  notes.  Trance 
of  Cologne,  a  monk  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury, was  the  first  to  supply  this  neces- 
sity ;  he  wrote  the  earliest  book  on  meas 


QL\)t  (Evolution  of  Chnrcl)  ittnaic         61 

ured  or  timed  music.  One  of  the  curious 
theories  which  belong  to  that  age  shows 
how  everything  was  referred  to  religious 
canons.  Because  there  were  three  per- 
sons in  the  Trinity,  it  was  held  that  triple 
time  was  clearly  the  only  time  proper  to 
sacred  themes.  Accordingly  triple  time 
was  called  "  perfect,"  and  common  time 
was  known  as  "  imperfect." 

Although  ecclesiastical  music,  until  the 
twelfth  century,  had  thus  been  absolutely 
timeless,  secular  music  had  employed 
time  in  its  folksongs  and  dances  which 
are  known  to  have  existed.  We  have 
nothing  to  do  in  this  sketch  with  that 
branch  of  the  subject,  but  it  may  be  men- 
tioned that  there  has  always  been  a  music 
differing  as  widely  in  character  as  in  pur- 
pose from  church  music.  Little  is  known 
of  this  early  secular  music,  and  indeed 
the  inquiry  is  a  new  one,  but  we  shall 
eventually  recover  some  knowledge  of  the 
subject.  The  certain  fact  that  this  sepa- 
ration between  secular  and  sacred  music 
has  always  existed  makes  it  even  more 
important  that  in  modern  times  the  differ- 


62         (Elje  (gooltttion  of  (Jllntrcl)  Jfltisic 

ence  between  music  written  for  the  Church 
and  that  written  for  amusement  should  be 
marked  and  distinct.  There  need  be  no 
cause  for  mistaking  the  one  for  the  other. 
There  are  certain  modes  of  structure 
which  should  never  be  followed  in  sacred 
music,  certain  characteristics  of  light, 
secular  melody  should  never  be  used  in 
the  music  of  the  Church.  These  seem  to 
rest  upon  the  fundamental  laws  and  struct- 
ure of  music  itself ;  they  are  such  as  quick 
repeated  successions  of  accented  and  un- 
accented notes,  and  dotted  notes  with 
rhythmical  pulsations.  These  are  op- 
posed to  the  very  nature  of  a  religious 
subject.  Nothing  sacred  should  be  writ- 
ten in  three-quarter,  three-eighth,  or  six- 
eighth  time.  Moreover,  what  is  termed 
the  Italian  school  color ature  should  be 
avoided.  This  includes  trills,  runs,  trill- 
chains,  and  all  those  fancy  figures  which 
belong  strictly  to  musical  ornamentation. 
But  sacred  music  requires  much  more 
than  the  avoidance  of  light  and  irreverent 
airs.  The  religious  character  of  the  sub- 
ject ought  to  leave  a  deep  and  indelible 


®l]c  (Evolution  of  (£l)ttrcf)  ittnoic         63 

imprint  upon  the  very  structure  of  the 
music  which  has  undertaken  to  express  it 
— upon  all  the  elements  of  melody,  har- 
mony, and  rhythm. 

Some  of  the  greatest  masters  of  music 
have  written  for  the  Church,  and  have 
composed  music  of  the  highest  artistic 
excellence ;  but  it  cannot  be  called  sacred 
music  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term,  be- 
cause it  does  not  express  religious  feel- 
ing. In  short,  it  is  not  devotional ;  either 
because  the  composers  had  no  religious 
emotion  to  express,  or  because  they  wrote 
to  please  a  worldly  and  secular  taste. 
Much  of  the  music  of  Rossini  and  Mozart, 
in  fact  a  large  number  of  the  classic 
masses,  cannot  be  considered,  according  to 
this  rule,  as  sacred  music.  Although  writ- 
ten expressly  for  the  Church,  it  does  not 
represent  the  feeling,  and  has  not  the 
meaning,  that  sacred  music  should  have. 
One  hearing  such  music  outside  of  the 
sacred  associations  of  the  Church,  and 
without  knowing  the  words  to  which  it 
was  sung,  or  the  title,  would  never  imagine 
for  an  instant  that  it  was  an  expression  of 


64         &l)£  (EtmltJtion  of  Qlhtxrrl)  ffttxsic 

specifically  religious  emotion.  Even  when 
heard  in  great  cathedrals,  where  carved 
stone  and  painted  glass  express  the 
spiritual  aspirations  of  man,  this  music 
does  not  excite  especially  religious  feel- 
ing. It  does  indeed  excite  pleasurable 
emotions  of  the  highest  type  ;  and  I  must 
admit  that  there  is  difficulty  in  assuming 
a  line  to  exist  between  exalted  aesthetic 
emotions  and  religious  emotions  arising 
from  spiritual  sentiments. 

And  now  as  we  stand,  in  our  brief 
sketch,  upon  the  threshold  of  the  full 
burst  of  song  which  marked  the  opening 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  it  may  not  be 
without  interest  to  consider  a  moment  the 
reasons  why  music  has  such  power  over 
the  emotions  of  mankind.  While  the 
enormous  power  of  music  over  the  feel- 
ings has  long  been  known,  and  has  fre- 
quently been  the  theme  of  poetry,  the 
more  prosaic  attempts  to  describe  or  to  ex- 
plain the  reasons  of  this  have  amounted  to 
little.  Indeed,  the  peculiar  qualifications 
for  such  study  are  rare,  and  consequently 
the  laborers  in  the  field  must  be  few. 


QL\)c  ©nolntion  of  (Cl)wrch  ttln&it         65 

One  thing  is  imperatively  demanded ; 
namely,  that  the  feeling  in  music  should 
be  worth  expressing.  In  the  words  of 
Herbert  Spencer:  "They  sin  against 
science  who  have  set  to  music  ideas  that 
are  not  emotional  enough  to  prompt 
musical  expression  ;  they  also  sin  against 
science  by  using  musical  phrases  that 
have  no  relation  to  the  ideas  expressed, 
even  when  these  are  emotional.  They 
are  bad  because  they  are  untrue,  and  they 
are  untrue  because  they  are  unscientific." 

If  the  philosopher  of  evolution  con- 
sidered such  words  none  too  strong  to 
describe  the  worthless  popular  ballads  of 
our  time,  how  much  more  severely  do 
they  censure  the  "  light  quirks  of  music  " 
introduced  into  our  services  by  untrained  or 
improperly  trained  choir-masters!  There 
is  room  in  music  for  lightness,  for  humor, 
perhaps  for  triviality  even  ;  but  sacred 
music  is  no  place  for  its  exercise. 

It  is  specially  the  office  of  music  to 
idealize  feeling. 

In  scientific  phraseology,  an  organism 
should  possess  three  main  attributes.  It 
5 


66         &l)£  Solution  of  C^inrcl)  ifltisic 

should  be  definite,  it  should  be  hetero- 
geneous, and  it  should  be  coherent.  The 
ideals  of  science  and  art  are  the  same. 
The  law  of  organic  proportion  applies 
with  more  peculiar  force  to  music  than 
to  the  arts  of  poetry  and  painting.  In 
poetry  the  idea,  and  the  language  in 
which  it  clothes  itself,  are  two  different 
factors,  and  can  be  considered  singly.  In 
painting  we  can  take  the  thought,  and  the 
picture  which  is  its  representative  medium, 
as  two  separate  quantities.  In  music  the 
thought  must  be  found  in  the  representa- 
tive medium  alone  ;  the  thought,  and  the 
melody  which  is  its  form,  emanate  directly 
and  necessarily  from  the  state  of  emotion 
which  produces  them. 

The  musician  has  no  fewer  resources  at 
his  command  than  have  the  painter  and 
the  poet.  Where  they  employ  contrasts 
of  color  and  shades  of  meaning,  he  uses 
combinations  of  tone  and  subtleties  of 
harmony  and  rhythm.  But  beyond  the 
scope  of  all  these  material  devices  of  his 
art,  the  spirit  in  which  the  composer  of 
sacred  music  combines  them  for  his  pur- 


®Lt)c  (Eoolntion  of  Cljnrcl}  Ittusic         67 

poses  should  be  a  different  spirit  from 
that  in  which  he  decks  his  operatic  works. 
All  the  truly  great  musicians  have  recog- 
nized that  the  splendor  which  may  be  per. 
mitted  them  must  be  sobered  and  trained 
down  in  psalm  and  oratorio.  Dignity 
and  reticence  befit  such  works. 

The  temper  of  Beethoven's  two  masses 
is  wholly  different  from  that  in  which 
"  Fidelio  "  is  written.  Berlioz  composed 
his  "Te  Deum"  in  another  style  from  that 
of  "Les  Troyens  "  or  "  Faust."  Instinc- 
tively we  feel,  leaving  the  significance  of 
the  words  aside,  that  the  music  of  the 
"  Messiah  "  is  suited  to  a  church,  and  that 
the  music  of  "  Tristan  und  Isolde  "  is  not. 
Music  does  not  articulate,  but  it  suggests  ; 
and  the  idea  it  suggests  should  be  in 
entire  accordance  with  the  conditions  it  is 
intended  for.  Notwithstanding  Richard 
Wagner's  "  unorthodox"  views  and  his 
intense  dramatic  feeling,  he  is  too  great 
an  artist  to  neglect  this  principle.  He 
would  never  confuse  sacred  music  with 
secular.  To  do  so  is  the  sure  mark  of  an 
inferior    composer.     "  We  may   naturally 


68         &\)t  (Etjolntion  of  GH)txrcl)  iHnsic 

expect  that  in  their  higher  development 
the  style  and  structure  of  music  should 
present  the  most  complete  examples  of 
artistic  organism  ;  that  they  should  be 
the  perfect  type  to  which  it  is  the  glory 
of  other  arts  to  conform." 

Few  men  can  be  both  musicians  and 
psychologists ;  but  with  the  daily  accumu- 
lation of  scientific  data,  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  at  no  very  dis- 
tant date  this  most  interesting  branch  of 
science  may  be  explained.  Helmholtz, 
who  taught  us  so  much  of  the  aesthetics 
of  music,  allowed  himself  to  touch  only 
the  fringes  of  this  question  ;  and  he  has 
declared  that  in  the  analysis  of  musical 
works,  and  the  search  for  the  reason  of 
their  beauty  and  influence,  one  encoun- 
ters apparently  invincible  obstacles  at 
every  step. 

No  one  has  made  a  successful  attempt 
to  analyze  what  the  peculiar  features  are 
that  constitute  pleasing  melody.  No  one 
has  ever  satisfactorily  explained  why  we 
prefer  some  melodies  to  others ;  why  some 
are    sure    to    be    popular   and    attractive, 


®t)e  (EtJolntion  of  Church  iflnsic         69 

while  others  are  passed  over  with  indiffer- 
ence. And  yet,  while  all  explanations 
fail,  the  fact  remains  that  music  has  a 
wonderful  power  upon  the  human  emo- 
tions. It  can  both  excite  and  express 
them.  Sometimes  it  seems  to  compel  the 
mind  to  clothe  them  with  definite  ideas  ; 
or  even,  again,  to  dispense  with  ideas  alto- 
gether. At  one  time  music  is  subservient 
to  our  ideas  to  express  them  ;  again,  it  is 
their  master  to  command  them. 

And,  as  the  emotions  can  exist  inde- 
pendently of  definite  ideas,  so  music,  the 
language  of  the  emotions,  can  be  indepen- 
dent of  all  figures.  Images  and  figures 
are  capable  of  evoking  the  deepest  emo- 
tion ;  but  they  cannot  half  so  well  as 
music,  it  seems  to  me,  express  the  very 
emotions  they  excite.  It  can  take  up  an 
emotion  excited,  or  only  partially  ex- 
pressed by  words,  and  expand  and  deepen 
it.  Music  has  this  power  beyond  that  of 
any  written  or  spoken  language. 


-from  JJaUstrina  to  the  Chorale  anb  (Earlo 
English  School 


"  Such  sweet  compulsion  doth  in  music  lie, 
To  lull  the  daughters  of  necessity, 
And  keep  unsteady  Nature  to  her  law, 
And  the  low  world  in  measured  motion  draw 
After  the  heavenly  tune,  which  none  can  hear 
Of  human  mould,  with  gross,  unpurged  ear." 

— Milton. 

"  Look  how  the  floor  of  heaven 
Is  thick  inlaid  with  patines  of  bright  gold  : 
There's  not  the  smallest  orb  which  thou  beholdest 
But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings, 
Still  quiring  to  the  young-eyed  cherubims ; 
Such  harmony  is  in  immortal  souls  ; 
But  whilst  this  muddy  vesture  of  decay 
Doth  grossly  close  it  in,  we  cannot  hear  it." 

— Shakespeare. 


Chapter  3. 

One  of  the  latest  inventions  in  the 
development  of  harmony  was  counter- 
point. Something  resembling  it  had  been 
known  previously,  called  descant.  This 
signified  the  singing  of  an  improvised 
melody  to  a  fixed  time  or  part.  It  was 
the  spontaneous  production  of  the  singer, 
originating  in  his  power  of  invention,  and 
it  was  not  written  down. 

In  counterpoint  the  part  was  written,  or 
rather  pricked,  down,  as  the  custom  then 
was  to  prick  the  notes  ;  from  this  it  was 
also  called  prick-song.  The  art  consisted 
in  combining  several  superimposed  melo- 
dies, writing  them  from  left  to  right,  not 
vertically,  as  chords  are  constructed  in 
modern  harmony.  In  general,  counter- 
point means  a  new  voice-part  added  to 
one  already  existing ;  this  voice  is  an  in- 
dividual, distinct,  and  independent  part, 
not   merely   a   natural    bass.       In    many 


74         $bs  Cuoltttion  of  djttrcl)  ittnsic 

hymns  which  are  feeble  and  poor  in  con- 
struction, you  will  find  that  the  bass  has 
no  movement  or  melody  of  its  own  ;  it 
only  exists  so  as  to  furnish  a  foundation 
for  the  chords.  Many  modern  so-called 
revivalist  tunes  are  constructed,  if  one  can 
use  such  a  word  in  describing  them,  on 
this  plan.  But  take  another  instance — 
E  wing's  tune,  "Jerusalem  the  Golden"; 
in  this  the  bass  moves  freely  and  inde- 
pendently, and  if  you  observe  them,  very 
interesting  harmonies  are  developed  in 
that  one  part.  This  bass  is  formed  on  a 
contrapuntal  idea. 

This  is  an  example  of  very  simple  forms. 
Another,  which  will  be  familiar  to  many, 
is  the  choral  "  Sleepers  Wake,"  from  St. 
Paul.  Here  the  counterpoint  is  of  the 
kind  called  "  note  against  note,"  and  what 
are  known  as  "  passing  notes"  occur  occa- 
sionally. The  contrapuntal  part  is  found 
in  the  bass  in  this  choral  also. 

Very  much  more  complicated  aspects 
of  counterpoint  are  commonly  presented. 
The  composers  of  the  fourteenth  and  fif- 
teenth   centuries    transferred    the  motion 


&l)e  (Euolntiott  of  <El)ttrcI)  ittttsic         75 

from  one  part  to  another — wrote  it  to  be 
sung  backwards  or  forwards.  Counter- 
point, when  used  properly  as  an  adjunct 
in  harmony,  gives  dignity  to  a  sacred  piece 
of  music  ;  it  brings  intelligence  into  play. 
It  led,  however,  in  the  early  years  of  its 
discovery,  to  purely  mechanical  forms, 
devoid  of  artistic  feeling,  and  it  brought 
music  within  the  realms  of  mathematics 
rather  than  of  art.  Under  Sebastian  Bach 
counterpoint  reached  its  highest  develop- 
ment ;  he  is  the  greatest  master  of  the 
art,  and  in  his  chorals  its  use  produces 
some  of  his  most  admirable  effects. 

By  the  sixteenth  century  the  tonal  art 
had  finally  acquired,  through  slow  and  la- 
borious processes,  the  material  by  which 
it  was  to  manifest  itself.  The  language 
was  created  in  which  it  was  to  speak. 
What  had  long  retarded  the  advance  of 
harmonic  music  were  the  prejudices  of 
ecclesiastics,  and  their  refusal  to  adopt 
certain  elements  without  which  modula- 
tion, as  now  understood,  could  not  exist. 
These  antipathies  were  chiefly  against  the 
use   of    the   augmented    fourth,    without 


76         ®l)e  ffwlntion  of  Cbtnrcl)  ittttsic 

which  the  use  of  the  dominant  seventh 
was  impossible.  This  chord  was  known 
by  a  few  musicians  before  1522,  but  it  was 
not  generally  adopted.  Claude  Monte- 
verde  of  Cremona,  1568,  has  the  credit  of 
placing  this  keystone  in  the  arch  of  mod- 
ern composition,  and  his  contributions  to 
musical  art  remain  in  effect  to  the  present 
day.  He  introduced  the  employment  of 
the  chords  of  the  diminished  fifth,  the 
chords  of  the  triad,  the  chords  of  the 
major  dominant  and  diminished  seventh, 
and  its  inversions  ;  the  chords  of  the  ma- 
jor ninth,  of  the  suspended  seventh  and 
ninth,  and  also  the  sign  of  the  #  in  the 
signature. 

The  presence  of  the  chord  of  the  dom- 
inant seventh  shows  at  once  whether 
music  is  of  earlier  or  later  date  than  the 
sixteenth  century.  Many  a  musician  had 
probably  experimented  on  this  beautiful 
harmony  and  prepared  the  way  for  its 
final  adoption  into  the  language  of  music, 
in  spite  of  its  opposition  from  the  more 
orthodox.  With  all  the  self-reliance  music 
had  now  gained,  it  still  waited  for  an  im- 


®be  (fuolntion  of  (Eljnrcl)  iflnsic         77 

petus  which  should  enable  it  to  shake  off 
the  bonds  which  kept  it  outside  the  world's 
progress  and  bring  it  into  the  current  of 
the  new  epoch — the  Renaissance.  It  was 
the  spirit  of  this  new  birth  of  moral  and 
intellectual  forces  which  gave  to  music 
that  form  of  expression  in  which  it  had 
hitherto  been  deficient.  At  this  juncture 
the  genius  of  Palestrina  appeared,  to  exert 
its  profound  influence — as  if  the  time  had 
called  for  such  a  spirit  and  it  came.  The 
forms  of  music  had  become  perfect ;  the 
material  to  work  with  was  prepared  ;  yet 
music  had  been  reduced  by  pedantry  to  a 
system  of  mathematical  problems.  Beauty 
as  an  essential  quality  was  absolutely  ig- 
nored. The  composers  buried  themselves 
in  working  out  ingenious  subtleties  and 
devices  at  the  expense  of  all  ideal  beauty. 
Counterpoint  had  run  mad,  so  to  speak. 
They  wrote  canons  which  could  be  sung 
backwards  and  forwards  equally  well,  and 
if  they  could  be  sung  upside  down  also,  it 
was  so  much  more  the  proof  of  superior- 
ity. Abuses  even  more  disastrous  than 
the  musical  ones  had  crept   into    usage. 


78         QEbe  Quotation  of  0H}tircIi  Jflnsic 

Words  of  quite  alien  meaning  were  intro- 
duced into  the  sacred  text,  which  bore  no 
reference  to  the  original,  but  were  de- 
signed simply  to  carry  out  the  differ- 
ent voice-parts  in  producing  the  whole 
effect. 

These  words  were  at  first  not  irreveren- 
tial,  but  they  had  no  meaning  sung  in  that 
connection.  For  example,  while  a  certain 
number  of  voices  sang  the  "  Credo  "  or 
"  Sanctus,"  the  others  would  sustain  their 
part  with  "  Alleluia"  or  "Ave  Maria." 
Familiar  hymns  or  antiphons  were  se- 
lected, and  masses  formed  that  were  based 
on  their  words.  One  was  named  '*  yEterna 
Christi  munera,"  from  an  old  hymn  of 
those  words.  There  is  a  Missa  for  Christ- 
mas called  "  Hodie  Christus  natus  est," 
and  one  for  Whitsunday  based  on  the 
hymn  "  Veni  Creator  Spiritus,"  and  so 
named  by  its  title. 

When  the  import  of  the  words  was  re- 
ligious, as  in  these  cases,  the  practice  was 
at  least  not  profane  and  shocking.  The 
Roman  Church  has  always  allowed  the  use 
of  collects,  short  meditations,  and  devout 


(Etje  (Evolution  of  Cljttrcl)  ifltxsic         79 

readings  during  the  mass,  if  they  conduce 
to  the  excitation  of  religious  feeling. 
When,  however,  the  music  of  secular 
melodies  began  to  be  taken  for  sacred 
subjects,  the  results  were  far  worse.  Then 
it  became  quite  common  for  the  words  of 
the  song  which  composed  the  melody  to 
be  surreptitiously  introduced,  and  while 
two  or  three  leading  voices  kept  to  the 
sacred  text,  in  the  back  rows  the  actual 
words  of  the  popular  melody  were  being 
sung.  "  It  became  usual  for  the  most 
solemn  phrases  of  the  '  Kyrie,'  '  Gloria,' 
1  Credo,'  and  '  Agnus  '  to  blend  along  the 
aisles  of  the  basilica  with  the  unedifying 
refrain  of  the  lewd  chansons  of  Flanders." 
A  council  of  ecclesiastics  was  called  to 
remedy  this  state  of  things,  and  the 
chapelmaster  of  the  Vatican,  known  to  us 
as  Palestrina,  was  commissioned  to  write 
a  sacred  composition  which  should  be 
pure  in  expression,  should  throw  the  true 
meaning  of  the  sacred  words  into  the 
clearest  possible  light,  and  should  also  be 
able  to  arouse  a  feeling  of  true  devotion. 
14  Palestrina  produced  a  mass  which  has 


80         (ftlje  evolution  of  €l)«rrl)  iHusic 

been  the  model  of  sacred  composition  ever 
since,  and  found  an  epoch  in  its  evolution. 
It  is  called  the  '  Missa  Papae  Macelli.'  It 
was  received  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm, 
and  has  been  the  admiration  of  musicians 
of  all  time.  It  employed,  indeed,  the 
clever  subtleties,  the  ingenious  artifices 
of  musical  science  ;  the  composer  was 
master  of  all  the  contrivances  known  to 
his  contemporaries,  but  they  were  used 
as  a  means  to  something  higher  than 
themselves.  Canon  and  imitation,  and 
the  devices  of  which  they  form  the  ground- 
work, fell  into  their  true  relation  to  art. 
They  no  longer  overtopped  it.  The  pres- 
ence of  a  soul  within  it  immortalized 
Palestrina's  work.  It  was  his  work  to 
breathe  into  music  the  breath  of  life,  to 
lift  it  from  the  dry  formulae  which  stifled 
it  and  give  it  an  aesthetic  beauty. 

"  It  was  not  for  the  sake  of  its  faultless 
symmetry  that  the  *  Missa  Papae  Macelli ' 
was  selected  as  the  model  of  ecclesiastical 
purity  ;  its  secret  lay  in  the  subjugation 
of  art  to  the  service  of  Nature  ;  of  inge- 
nuity to  beauty.     To  his  work  Palestrina 


(ftlje  (Etjolnlion  of  €\)nxt\)  fflmit         81 

brought  the  qualities  of  heart  and  mind 
which  are  a  sine  qua  non  in  the  composi- 
tion of  sacred  music  ;  earnestness,  a  relig- 
ious nature,  the  science  of  a  thorough 
scholar,  and  the  refined  feeling  of  an  art- 
ist whose  sense  of  beauty  is  too  strong 
to  allow  technical  display  to  overshadow 
it.  The  distinguishing  characteristics  of 
his  harmony  are  its  symmetry  and  its 
equality.  Whatever  the  number  of  parts 
in  which  he  writes,  none  is  ever  allowed 
to  claim  precedence  over  another  ;  neither 
is  any  voice  permitted  to  introduce  itself 
without  having  something  important  to 
say." 

His  effects  are  produced  by  "the  inter- 
weaving of  the  separate  subjects."  When 
some  rarely  beautiful  chord  surprises  us 
we  find  on  studying  it  that  it  was  "  the 
natural  consequence  of  some  little  point 
of  imitation,  or  the  working  out  of  some 
melodious  response  which  fell  into  the 
delicious  combination  of  its  own  accord. 
Palestrina's  loveliest  harmonies  come  of 
themselves,  when  he  is  quietly  fitting  his 
subjects  together  without  a  thought  be- 


82         &l)£  (£t)0httion  of  (E^nxci)  Mn&ic 

yond  the  melodic  involutions  of  his  vocal 
phrases." 

We  have  devoted  so  much  space  to  the 
position  of  Palestrina  because  he  forms 
an  epoch  in  musical  composition.  We  do 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  "  romantic 
movement "  in  music  which  still  continues, 
and  is  destined  perhaps  to  supersede  the 
classic  forms,  can  be  traced  in  its  begin- 
nings in  Palestrinas  music.  Whenever 
his  principles  have  modelled  the  schools, 
that  music  has  been  most  successful  and 
most  enduring  ;  as,  notably,  in  the  Ger- 
man schools,  which  were  deeply  influenced 
by  him. 

Another  great  impetus  in  the  develop- 
ment of  sacred  music  was  the  Protestant 
Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  very  style  of  church  musical  composi- 
tion was  affected  by  it,  and  may  indeed  be 
said  to  have  acquired  a  Protestant  char- 
acter. The  leading  spirit  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, himself  both  poet  and  musician,  was 
the  founder  of  the  new  school  of  music, 
and  was  the  first  to  place  the  words  of 
praise  and  prayer  within   the  lips  of  the 


(&t)e  ©notation  of  (fTl)Htcl)  ittnsic         83 

people,  associated  with  rhythmical  music. 
11  Next  to  theology,"  he  said,  M  I  give  the 
highest  place  to  music,  for  thereby  anger 
is  forgotten,  melancholy  and  many  tribu- 
lations and  evil  thoughts  are  driven 
away." 

The  Chorale  of  Protestant  Germany  fur- 
nish us  with  the  best  illustrations  of  per- 
fection in  metrical  tunes.  It  was  here  that 
the  great  leader  of  the  religious  move- 
ment of  the  sixteenth  century  published 
the  first  collection  of  hymns  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  common  people.  The  pos- 
session of  these  stirring  hymns,  in  words 
they  could  understand  and  repeat,  exerted 
upon  them  an  effect  comparable  to  that  of 
the  Marseillaise  on  the  French.  But  for 
these  martial  and  inspiring  tunes  it  may 
well  be  doubted  whether  the  new  ideas 
could  have  spread  so  rapidly  as  they  did, 
and  taken  such  hold  on  men's  minds. 

These  first  hymns,  in  the  modern  sense, 
were  drawn  from  various  sources  :  some 
were  transcriptions  from  old  church  chants; 
many  were  frankly  taken  from  the  mel- 
odies   of   the   people,    in    the    folk-songs. 


84         Qttje  (Etiolation  of  €l)ttrct)  Mnzic 

Among  those  most  familiar  to  us  is  "  Nun 
danket  alle  Gott." 

The  home  of  the  chorals  is  so  exclu- 
sively Protestant  Germany  that  we  can 
hardly  believe  that  many  of  them  came 
there  byway  of  France.  In  1565  a  col- 
lection of  hymn  tunes  was  published  in 
Paris  by  Claude  Goudinel,  and  many  of 
these  were  speedily  adopted  in  Germany. 
A  large  number  of  those  were  from  secu- 
lar sources.  Their  stern  Calvinistic  doc- 
trine, however,  firmly  disowned  all  connec- 
tion with  a  light  or  irreligious  origin. 

In  this  collection  the  famous  tune  known 
as  "  Old  Hundred"  first  appeared.  It 
seemed  to  come  rather  from  a  Genevan 
source  than  any  other  traceable  one ; 
but  it  is  of  very  ancient  lineage,  and  has 
an  actual  existence  long  prior  to  Gou- 
dinel's  collection.  Hardly  any  example 
more  familiar  to  us  could  be  given.  Un- 
doubtedly it  is  one  of  those  old  tunes 
handed  down  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion by  the  living  voice.  "  Why  should 
the  devil  have  all  the  good  tunes  ?  "  as  Row- 
land Hill  said  later.     Luther  himself,  mu- 


&l)e  (Joolttticm  of  <£l)tircl)  iUttsic         85 

sician  as  well  as  poet,  innovator  and  re- 
former, doubtless  had  no  hesitation  in 
taking  a  good  folk-song  whenever  he 
found  it,  and  fitting  it  to  his  tremendous 
phraseology. 

To    Luther   are    ascribed    two    hymns 
which  have    remained    in    our  collection, 
11  Eine  Feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott,"  known      * 
to  us  as  "AJStrong  Tower  is_our  God,"    '   "* 
and  another,   "  Great  God,  what  do  I  see     ShcA.    *£**' 
and  hear  ? "     The  well-known   choral    in- 
troduced several  times  by  Bach  in  his  St. 
Matthew  "  Passions  Musik,"    "  O   Haupt 
voll  Blut  und  Wunden,"  was  a  well-known 
folk-song  of  Germany.      It  is  called  in  our 
collections  "  O  Sacred  Head  now  Wound- 
ed."    Johann  Cruger  was  the  author  of  a 
very  large  number  of  these  Chorale. 

The  use  of  hymns  dates  from  the  Ref- 
ormation. There  is  no  more  striking 
mark  to  show  the  change  that  had  taken 
place  than  the  contrast  between  the  vague 
phrases  and  uneven  rhythm  of  the  Gre- 
gorian chants  and  the  measured  move- 
ment of  the  Protestant  chorals. 

The  music  of  the  English  Church  re- 


86         &!)£  (Evolution  of  <&t)xiTt\)  Uttisic 

quires  a  separate  history  to  consider  its 
just  claims  to  an  art  of  its  own.  "  If  the 
word  indigenous  can  ever  be  rightly 
applied  to  any  school  of  art,  the  English 
school  of  church  music  might  put  in  a  very 
strong  claim  to  it.  The  individuality  of 
England's  music  was  favored  by  her  in- 
sular position,  and  its  masters  of  earlier 
times  were  left  more  to  their  own  re- 
sources than  those  of  any  other  country." 
A  school  of  anthem  and  service  music  was 
developed  there  which  is  most  interesting 
to  us  as  being  the  heritage  of  our  own 
church.  The  English  service  was  clearly 
arranged  with  a  view  to  its  musical  ren- 
dering. No  more  noble  church  melodies 
exist  than  are  found  among  the  English 
psalm  tunes,  and  English  cathedral  music 
is  a  purely  national  development  of  the 
highest  artistic  value  and  deep  religious 
importance.  Of  the  form  it  developed, 
known  as  the  Anglican  chant,  we  may 
justly  be  proud.  A  cultured  taste,  how- 
ever, will  eliminate  from  it  a  florid  style 
of  accompaniments  and  the  variety  of 
light  endings  that  some   musicians  have 


8TI)e  (Etiolation  of  (Eljtircl)  itttisic         87 

chosen  to  add,  with  a  mistaken  view  to- 
wards ornamentation. 

Whatever  may  be  said  in  favor  of  the 
Anglican  chant,  "  the  Gregorian  chant  is 
one  of  the  most  perfect  in  the  expression 
of  religious  feeling  which  we  have  in 
music.  These  Gregorian  tones  have  been 
the  foundations  of  the  best  hymns  and 
anthems,  and  they  have  given  rise  to  a 
style  which,  for  its  simplicity  and  gran- 
deur, many  look  up  to  as  the  perfection 
of  religious  expression."  The  solemn  ef- 
fects of  the  Good  Friday  and  Ash  Wednes- 
day services  are  immeasurably  heightened 
by  Gregorian  music. 

When  we  remember  that  a  proper  un- 
derstanding of  this  is  essential  to  the  per- 
fect performance  of  the  choral  service,  it 
is  to  be  wondered  at  that,  in  these  days  of 
the  multiplication  of  boy-choirs  and  choral 
services,  it  is  not  more  carefully  studied. 
Unfortunately,  the  Gregorian  tones  are 
popularly  supposed  to  be  a  kind  of  "  rudi- 
mentary music  ;  a  kind  of  chrysalis  melody, 
compared  to  which  modern  music  is  the 
beautiful    butterfly   with    all    its   glorious 


88         &t)£  (EtJohiticrit  of  <&\)tixtl)  fflnsk 

color.  Now,  modern  music  is  no  more 
the  development  of  the  Gregorian  chant 
than  the  delicious  musical  tones  breathed 
by  the  air,  as  it  passes  through  the  pipes 
of  an  organ,  are  the  development  of  the 
song  of  the  north  wind  as  it  whispers 
among  the  pines."  There  is  a  radical 
unlikeness  between  the  Gregorian  and 
modern  music,  and  the  chant  formed  upon 
the  varied  Gregorian  tones  has  a  richness 
of  melody  that  is  different  from  anything 
founded  upon  the  modern  scale,  and  is 
often  superior  to  it.  Take  the  most  ex- 
pressive composition  of  the  modern  school, 
strip  from  it  all  its  accessories  of  harmony 
and  accompaniment,  and  place  its  un- 
masked melody,  its  naked  theme,  in  com- 
parison with  the  chant  melody  ;  the  result 
will  be  surprisingly  in  favor  of  the  chant. 

History  records  numerous  instances  of 
the  power  of  this  devout  and  solemn  mu- 
sic ;  as  how  worldly,  sensual,  and  wicked 
men,  happening  to  hear  this  chant  as  it 
was  poured  forth  from  cloistered  walls, 
have  then  and  there  resolved  to  change 
their  lives,  many  of  them  joining  the  song 


®he  <Et)0lnti0tt  of  (ZEhnrcl)  iHosic         89 

of  the  monks  never  to  return  to  the  world. 
The  conversion  of  St.  Augustine  was  at- 
tributed to  just  such  a  chance  hearing  of 
this  wonderful  song  of  the  monks.  How 
beautifully  the  poet  speaks  of  it  ! 

"  A  pleasant  music  floats  along  the  mere 
From  monks  in  Ely  chanting  service  high, 
Whileas  Canute  the  king  is  rowing  by. 
*  My  oarsmen,'  quoth  the  mighty  king,  '  draw  near, 
That  we  the  sweet  songs  of  the  monks  may  hear.' 
He  listens  (all  past  conquests,  and  all  schemes 
Of  future  glory,  vanishing  like  empty  dreams), 
Heart-touched,  and  haply  not  without  a  tear. 
The  royal  minstrel,  ere  the  choir  is  still, 
While  his   free   barque   skims  the  smooth   flood 

along 
Gives  to  that  rapture  an  accordant  rhyme. 
Oh,  suffering  earth  !  be  thankful  ;  sternest  clime 
And  rudest  age  are  subject  to  the  thrill 
Of  Heaven-descending  piety  and  song." 

No  musician  like  Ambrose,  and  Greg- 
ory, who  was  at  once  poet  and  composer, 
belonged  to  England,  nor  was  there  one 
like  Luther,  who  became  a  household  word 
in  his  country.  The  hymns  of  England 
never  became  the  folk-songs  in  the  sense 
that  Luther's  did  in  his  fatherland.      Such 


90         (Jlje  (Etiolation  of  QEIitircl)  Jtttxsic 

work  as  Clement  Marot  did  for  the  Gene- 
vans was  imitated  in  England  by  Stern- 
hold  and  Hopkins,  whose  version  of  the 
psalms  in  English  appeared  only  a  little 
later  than  Luther's  collection  of  chorals. 
The  "  apt  notes  to  sing  withal  "  were  writ- 
ten without  bass  or  any  other  part.  Not 
long  after,  Bishop  Jewell  relates  how 
thousands  of  the  populace,  assembled  at 
Paul's  Cross  to  hear  preaching,  would  join 
in  singing  psalms  before  and  after  sermon. 
It  was,  doubtless,  from  this  collection  they 
sang.  It  appeared  in  1568,  and  was  en- 
titled "  The  Whole  Booke  of  Psalms,  coll. 
into  English  metre  by  T.  Sternhold,  J. 
Hopkins  and  others,  conferred  with  the 
Ebrue  :  with  apt  notes  to  sing  them 
withal." 

The  English  Church  remained  depen- 
dent on  this  version  for  nearly  a  century 
and  a  half,  almost  down  to  the  day  when 
Pope  made  his  Horatian  fling  at  "  Hop- 
kins and  Sternhold, who  glad  the  heart  with 
psalms,"  as  sung  by  charity  children  ;  when 

11  The  silenced  preacher  yields  to  potent  strain, 
And  heaven  is  won  by  violence  of  song." 


Silic  evolution  of  dTI]nrcl)  Mmic         91 

In  1696  another  translation,  that  of 
Tate  and  Brady,  appeared.  In  this  new 
version  were  one  or  two  hymns  which  still 
find  a  place  in  our  modern  hymnals.  Such 
are  "  As  Pants  the  Hart  for  Cooling 
Stream,"  "  O  God  of  Hosts,  the  Mighty  ,  •  ^^  *•/  * 
Lord,"jind  tne  beautiful  Christmas  hymn]"'  •    „/£  \ 

of    Tate,    -While    Shepherds    Watched]//**   fUi [ 
their  Flocks  by  Night.'U  //*~*^V  ^ 

A  long  succession  of  musical  compos-  ' 
ers,  covering  a  period  of  more  than  three 
centuries,  have  left  us  a  magnificent  inher- 
itance of  hymn  tunes  ;  and  many  can  be 
referred  to  who  have  always  aimed  at  the 
highest  expression  of  their  art.  Palestrina 
undoubtedly  made  a  deep  impression  upon 
his  brother  musicians  of  England.  A  copy 
of  the  original  Roman  edition  of  his  mag- 
nificent hymnal  is  still  preserved  in  the 
British  Museum,  and  the  English  com- 
posers probably  had  his  music  among 
them  as  soon  almost  as  it  appeared.  The 
intercourse  between  England  and  Rome 
could  not  have  failed  to  bring  from  Italy 
the  works  which  had  aroused  such  pro- 
found enthusiasm  there. 


92  (£t)£  (Scoolntiott  of  Cl)nrrl)  iflnsic 

Tallis,  known  as  the  father  of  English 
cathedral  music,  was  less  influenced  by 
Palestrina's  works  than  were  some  of  his 
immediate  followers,  as  he  was  almost 
contemporary  with  Palestrina  and  had 
been  formed  by  the  music  of  the  older 
school.  Tallis  was  chapelmaster  first  to 
Henry  the  Eighth,  and  steered  his  course 
so  cleverly  that  he  never  lost  his  position 
until  his  death,  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth. 
His  preferences  were  evidently  for  the  old 
faith  rather  than  the  new,  but  he  managed 
not  to  obtrude  them  injudiciously.  Tal- 
lies "  Preces  "  "  Litany,"  and  "  Service  "  in 
the  Dorian  mode  followed  very  shortly 
the  issue  of  the  second  Prayer  Book  of 
Edward  the  Sixth.  In  1560  John  Daye's 
"  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer  and  Com- 
munion "  was  published,  and  to  this  Tallis 
contributed  eight  tunes  ;  one  of  these  is 
the  well-known  tune  to  Ken's  evening 
hymn,  "  Glory  to  Thee  my  God  this 
Night."  This  is  the  first  collection  in 
which  the  music  is  written  for  four  voices. 
The  tunes  were  set  in  plain  counterpoint, 
and  the  melody  was  placed  in  the  tenor  part. 


QL\)C  (Etjointion  of  Cbnrcl)  iitttisic         93 

In  Ravenscroft's  "  Whole  Booke  of 
Psalms,"  which  appeared  in  162 1,  the 
contributing  composers  were  John  Dow- 
land,  E.  Blancks,  Hooper,  Farmer,  Alli- 
son, Kirbye,  Cobbold,  Johnson,  and  Far- 
naby.  The  melody  to  these  tunes  was 
always  in  the  tenor  part,  and  there  is  not 
one  in  the  collection  which  is  not  a  model 
of  good  music.  These  early  hymn-tune 
writers  are  mentioned  because  it  is  well 
for  any  one  who  wishes  to  have  even  a 
slight  knowledge  of  the  subject  to  be 
acquainted  with  the  names  of  our  early 
composers  of  sacred  music.  The  music 
to  the  one  hundredth  Psalm,  by  John 
Dowland,  is  still  often  heard  in  England, 
especially  in  Salisbury  Cathedral,  and  it 
would  be  well  if  it  were  in  more  frequent 
use  among  us.  In  Barnard's  "  First  Book 
of  Selected  Church  Musick "  a  great 
many  of  Tallis's  tunes  were  preserved. 
During  all  those  years  of  office  he  wrote 
unremittingly.  Over  fifty  services,  an- 
thems, and  responses  were  printed,  and 
sixty  manuscripts  remain  in  Christ  Col- 
lege,  Oxford.     Nothing  more    solid   and 


94        &f)£  Solution  of  (Etjurcl)  ittnsic 

excellent  than  Tallis's  "  Te  Deum,"  set  in 
the  Dorian  mode,  has  ever  been  con- 
ceived, and  if  it  could  be  more  frequently 
heard  by  us,  it  would  prove  one  of  those 
models  by  which  to  correct  our  taste. 

Byrd,  Farrant,  and  Bevin,  in  the  "  ser- 
vice high  and  anthem  clear,"  added 
splendid  examples  of  sacred  writing  to 
the  music  of  that  time  and  school.  A 
few  years  later  Orlando  Gibbons  appeared, 
another  musician  of  distinguished  ability. 
He  was  organist  at  Westminster  in  1622. 
A  collection  of  hymns  was  published  by 
George  Withers,  and  Gibbons,  in  collabo- 
ration with  Byrd,  composed  the  tunes. 
In  its  fine  harmony  and  in  its  solemnity 
and  grandeur  Gibbons's  music  is  unsur- 
passed by  any  of  later  date. 

A  little  later  came  the  troublous  times 
of  Charles  the  First  ;  and  a  temporary 
blight  fell  on  the  flourishing  school  of 
English  church  music.  No  doubt  the 
times  inspired  the  rugged  and  vigor- 
ous hymns  of  the  Covenanters,  but  they 
were  utterly  destructive  to  the  production 
of  anthems    and   musical    services.     The 


QL\)c  (Eoohitioti  of  Cfjnrct)  ffltisic         95 

former,  which  had  been  highly  cultivated, 
died  out  completely.  No  words  are  too 
strong  to  describe  the  hatred  of  the  Puri- 
tans for  the  English  church  and  its  music. 
To  destroy  and  to  root  out  of  the  land 
every  office-book  was  believed  to  be  their 
bounden  duty,  and  so  well  did  they  carry 
out  these  zealous  promptings  that  when, 
on  the  return  of  the  Stuarts,  Matthew 
Lock  tried  to  get  up  some  music  for  King 
Charles's  entry  into  London,  he  could 
hardly  find  any  music  left  to  sing.  For- 
tunately some  copies  of  Barnard's  collec- 
tion had  been  saved  from  the  general 
wreck,  and  a  choir  was  gathered  together, 
as  well  as  the  scarcity  of  choir-boys  ad- 
mitted. Puritan  animosity  had  so  dis- 
persed these  that  the  treble  parts  had 
finally  to  be  given  to  a  duet  Falsetti,  and 
when  these  failed  they  had  to  be  rendered 
by  cornets. 

Diligent  search  at  last  discovered  three 
excellent  choristers,  and  in  those  names 
we  recognize  the  founders  of  the  new 
school  of  church  music.  They  were  Pel- 
ham   Humfrey,  John   Blow,    and  Michael 


96  &l)£  (Etfolnticn  of  dljnrcl]  iHusic 

Wise.  The  form  of  the  new  music  was 
as  strictly  Anglican  in  character  as  the 
English  glee  ;  but  it  was  a  new  develop- 
ment, differing  in  many  respects  from  that 
which  had  preceded  it.  Its  characteris- 
tic feature  was  the  verse-anthem,  which 
differed  from  the  full-anthem  of  the  old 
school,  as  that  did  from  the  motet,  which 
was  the  specialty  of  the  service  preced- 
ing the  change  of  religion.  The  verse- 
anthem  was  written  for  a  large  number 
of  voices  ;  it  required  a  full  organ  accom. 
paniment,  and  if  it  did  not  open  with  a 
chorus  it  always  finished  with  one. 

The  general  character  of  the  music  now 
became  more  elaborate.  The  King  had 
imbibed  a  decided  fondness  for  French 
forms,  learned  during  his  stay  on  the  con- 
tinent, and  he  commanded  some  embel- 
lishments to  the  anthems.  By  this  time 
Pelham  Humfrey's  voice  had  broken,  and 
the  King  despatched  him  to  Paris  to  study 
Lulli,  and  ritornelli  soon  interspersed  the 
English  anthems. 

Shortly  after  this  the  choir  received  a 
notable  addition   in  the   great  composer 


&\)c  Grooimion  of  Clinrclj  fflnsic         97 

Henry  Purcell,  one  of  the  greatest  musi- 
cians of  England.  He  is  called  the  Eng- 
lish Palestrina,  so  deeply  had  he  drunk 
the  inspiration  of  the  greatest  of  church 
composers.  In  the  grandeur,  the  earnest- 
ness of  purpose,  the  masterly  employment 
of  fugue  and  polyphony,  Purcell  strongly 
resembled  that  illustrious  composer.  In 
his  sacred  music  he  exhibited  a  serious- 
ness fully  adequate  to  his  subject  ;  in  his 
musical  composition  he  evinced  a  learning 
and  skill  far  superior  to  his  fellow-musi- 
cians. His  most  celebrated  anthem,  "  O 
Give  Thanks,"  contains  a  magnificent  use 
of  the  diminished  fourth,  an  interval  that 
few  musicians  dare  venture  to  employ. 
Bach  did  so  with  distinguished  ability  in 
his  "  Passions  Musik,"  but  Purcell  employs 
it  with  an  effect  equally  remarkable  and 
pathetic.  The  first  English  "  Te  Deum" 
written  with  full  orchestral  score  was  com- 
posed by  Purcell.  He  was  a  careful  think- 
er, perceiving  the  ideal  in  art,  thoroughly 
scientific  in  his  methods,  and  artistic  in 
his  feeling. 

After  these  fathers  of    English    music 


98         &I)e  (Etiolation  of  Cbnrct)  ittusic 

come  the  worthy  names  of  Dr.  Boyce,  Sir 
John  Goss,  Battishall,  all  composers  of 
unvarying  excellence,  whose  tunes  are  re- 
liable models  of  style.  In  modern  times 
Dr.  Dykes,  Henry  Smart,  Barnby,  the 
two  Monks,  and  Sir  Arthur  Sullivan  have 
given  us  hymns  of  great  nobleness,  worthy 
to  be  ranked  with  any  of  their  predeces- 
sors. 

In  its  hymn-nomenclature  Germany 
possesses  a  decided  advantage  over  our 
own.  The  words  of  a  given  hymn  are 
in  Germany  always  associated  with  the 
same  tune  ;  no  other  one  is  ever  used, 
and  the  music  immediately  suggests  the 
hymn  it  is  invariably  sung  to.  In  Eng- 
land tunes  were  composed  to  metres  rather 
than  to  poems,  so  that  one  hymn  has  vari- 
ous melodies,  any  tune  in  a  given  metre 
being  available  for  every  other  hymn  in 
the  same  metre.  In  Germany  the  tune 
invariably  suggests  the  whole  subject  of 
the  hymn  with  which  it  is  associated. 
None  other  is  ever  sung  to  it,  and  it  is 
named  from  its  lines.  In  England  tunes 
are    named    generally  after  some    place, 


®l]e  GcDolution  of  (Etjnrcl)  itlnsic         99 

as  "  China,"  "  York,"  "  Dundee,"  or  called 
by  kindred  titles  which  signify  nothing 
musically.  Barren  of  poetry  and  enthu- 
siasm as  the  enlightened  century  was,  it 
was  that  nevertheless  in  which  English 
hymns  were  most  prolific.  Isaac  Watts, 
whatever  partly  ludicrous  associations  he 
may  suggest,  can  be  called  "  the  inventor 
of  English  hymns."  Many  were  almost 
absurd,  and  some  were  quite  painful,  but 
he  atones  for  many  faults  in  one  really 
strong  hymn  of  his,  "  <S)  God,  our  help  in  C/i/f' 
ages  past."  / 

Although  it  is  with  the  music  rather 
than  the  words  of  hymns  we  are  now  con- 
cerned, yet  it  is  obvious  that  both  text 
and  tune  should  be  of  equal  excellence, 
"  Noble  music  wedded  to  noble  words." 
When  music  and  words  are  united  suit- 
ably and  fitly, — then  only  is  the  goal 
touched  which  should  satisfy  us.  While 
the  music  of  a  hymn  deepens  and  intensi- 
fies feeling,  and  furnishes  a  "  natural  ve- 
hicle "  for  it,  the  words  are  of  no  less  im- 
portance, because  they  suggest  the  ideas 
which    direct    the    feeling.      Unless    both 


ioo        iEtje  (fftjolntion  of  Church  ittnsic 

words  and  music  come  up  to  an  equally 
high  standard  of  excellence  they  are  not 
worthy  to  be  used  in  Divine  worship. 
This  principle  is  freely  admitted*  although 
not  always  followed  in  modern  times  ;  but 
prior  to  the  Reformation  music  often 
went  its  own  way  with  apparently  little 
regard  to  the  significance  of  the  text. 
This  is  very  amusingly  illustrated  in  Pales- 
trina's  "  Lamentations;"  the  introductory 
phrases,  "  Incipit  Lamentatio,"  or  "  De 
Lamentatione,"  and  even  the  names  of 
the  Hebrew  initial  letters,  were  set,  by  so 
great  a  composer,  as  carefully  as  the  verses 
that  follow. 

Handel  seemed  at  times  to  have  given 
little  attention  to  his  words,  doubtless 
under  the  strong  conviction  that  the  music 
would  convey  the  proper  feeling  without 
reference  to  what  words  were  employed. 
Yet  one  of  his  biographers  says  that  he 
was  exceedingly  hurt  when  the  bishops 
sent  him  words  for  his  anthem,  as  he  felt 
this  implied  his  ignorance  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  "  I  have  read  my  Bible,"  said 
he  ;  "  I  shall  choose  for  myself." 


(Elje  (EtJoltitioit  of  Cnjnrcl)  itttisic        101 

There  always  seems  to  have  been  in 
the  minds  of  the  really  great  composers 
a  deep  conviction  of  the  dignity  of  their 
labor  whenever  they  attempted  to  express 
the  solemn  truths  of  sacred  subjects. 

Handel,  in  commenting  on  the  Halle- 
lujah Chorus,  said  :  "  I  did  think  I  did  see 
all  heaven  before  me,  and  the  great  God 
himself." 

At  the  head  of  his  scores  Haydn  in- 
scribed the  words  "  In  Nomine  Domini," 
and  at  the  end  of  them  "  Laus  Deo." 
"  When  I  was  occupied  upon  the  '  Crea- 
tion,' he  said,  "  always  before  I  sat  down 
to  the  piano  I  prayed  to  God  with  earnest- 
ness that  He  would  enable  me  to  praise 
Him  worthily." 

Mozart  composed  his  great  Requiem 
with  the  shadow  of  death  falling  on  him  ; 
with  every  note  he  wrote,  he  realized  that 
it  was  a  solemn  task  that  he  must  finish 
while  life  remained.  "  Who  can  ever  hear 
the  Requiem,"  asks  his  biographer,  "  with- 
out the  sense  of  its  sublimity  being  en- 
hanced by  the  remembrance  that  it  is  the 
work  of  the  dying  for  the  dead  ?  " 


102       ftlje  evolution  of  (Elinrcl)  ittnsic 

Probably  both  words  and  music  were  at 
the  lowest  ebb  during  the  period  in  Eng- 
land of  the  early  Georges.  After  the 
Commonwealth  they  banished  poetry  from 
the  Prayer  Book,  as  far  as  that  was  pos- 
sible, when  the  old  hymns  were  left  out  of 
its  pages.  The  clergy  were  the  greatest 
reproach  to  their  sacred  profession.  In- 
different to  their  office  and  ignorant  of  all 
learning,  as  many  of  them  were,  it  became 
the  custom  to  leave  the  selection  of  church 
music  to  parish  clerks  who  were  still  more 
ignorant.  The  Rev.  Edward  Vaux,  in 
his  recent  book  on  "  Church  Folk-Lore," 
quotes  a  passage  from  John  Wesley's 
works,  giving  an  amusing  reminiscence  of 
the  latter' s  boyhood.  "  One  Sunday,  imme- 
diately after  sermon,  my  father's  clerk  said, 
in  an  audible  voice  :  '  Let  us  sing  to  the 
praise,  etc.,  a  hymn  of  our  own  composing  : 

"  '  "  King  William  is  come  home,  come  home, 
King  William  home  is  come, 
Therefore  let  us  together  sing 

The  hymn  that's  called  Te  £>um."  '  " 

This     shows     the     debased     condition 


(ftfie  (Evolution  of  Qlljtircl)  ittnsic        103 

church  music  had  fallen  into  at  that 
time;  but  "  the  bald  and  unpoetical  dog- 
gerel, the  false  statements,  glaring  incon- 
sistencies, and  bad  grammar  too  often 
found  in  our  hymns,"  show  that  the  pub- 
lic taste  has  not  yet  reached  a  very  high 
level.  Sometimes  the  sickly  sentimental- 
ity of  the  words  we  are  called  to  sing  is 
enough  to  keep  sensible  people  away  from 
church.  It  is  a  slight  on  ordinary  intelli- 
gence to  be  asked  to  sing  such  hymns  as 
"  O  Paradise."  Its  sentiment  is  nearly  as 
senseless  as  that  of  another  hymn  which 
no  longer  exists  in  any  of  the  church  col- 
lections, and  which  must  have  given  a 
great  many  people  a  distaste  for  heaven 
when  they  heard  it  bellowed  forth  in  ac- 
cents that  were  both  distressing  and  deaf- 
ening. 

"  I  have  been  there,  and  still  would  go, 
'Tis  like  a  little  heaven  below." 

We  can  readily  see  that  if  the  greater 
heaven  above  were  like  this  sort  of  little 
heaven  below,  we  would  far  rather  not 
go  there. 


104       f&tye  (fftJ0ltttion  of  Cliarcl)  ittasic 

Some  of  our  hymns  in  frequent  use 
contain  statements  that,  if  not  untrue,  are 
at  least  inaccurate.  A  favorite  hymn  de- 
clares, "  We  are  not  divided,  all  one  body 
we.  One  in  faith  and  doctrine,  one  in 
charity."  Are  we,  indeed  ?  Then  why 
does  another  hymn  directly  contradict  the 
statement  by  describing  the  church  as 
"  by  schisms  rent  asunder,  by  heresies  dis- 
tressed" ? 

Some  hymns  are  too  individual  in  their 
character,  too  intensely  personal,  to  be 
suitable  for  congregational  use.  "  Weary 
of  earth  and  laden  with  6W  sin  "  and  "  I 
heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say  "  express  feel- 
ings of  so  deeply  personal  a  nature  that 
one  almost  shrinks  from  uttering  in  public 
such  intimate  and  sacred  experiences. 

The  class  of  hymns  which  dwell  on  the 
physical  side  of  our  Lord's  Passion  seem 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  humaneness  which 
is  a  characteristic  of  our  age.  We  shudder 
at  the  description  of  surgical  operations 
or  of  the  tortures  of  animals  under  vivi- 
section, yet  during  Lent  we  listen  in  our 
hymns  to  the  most  harrowing  details  of 


QL\)c  (ffoolntion  of  (JThnrcl)  iflnsic        105 

the  agonies  of  the  Crucifixion.  Is  it  really 
edifying  to  perpetrate  the  crude  feeling 
of  the  Middle  Ages  in  such  hymns  as 
number  ninety-two  of  our  new  hymnal, 
with  its  litany  of  "  scourges,"  "  nails,"  and 
"livid  stripes,"  or  of  "  At  the  cross  her 
station  keeping "  and  "  O  come  and 
mourn,"  which  are  full  of  painful  ideas  ? 

It  is  in  truth  a  mystery  how  people  of 
even  ordinary  culture  can  tolerate  such 
senseless  repetitions,  such  stupid  and  ex- 
travagant refrains,  as  some  religious  meet- 
ings offer.  For  instance,  such  a  petition 
as  "  Let  some  droppings  fall  on  me  "  is  so 
absurd  that  in  any  other  sort  of  meeting 
it  would  be  thought  idiotic.  We  will  do 
the  clergyman  the  justice  to  believe  it 
cannot  be  his  taste  which  leads  to  such 
discrediting  of  his  own  intellect  by  these 
selections.  In  his  earnestness  to  win 
souls,  to  catch  the  wandering  thoughts  of 
his  hearers,  "  to  make  the  people  sing,"  or, 
as  an  even  cruder  class  say,  "  to  make  the 
meeting  lively,"  he  forgets  that  he  has  no 
right  to  encourage  so  exceedingly  a  low 
type  of  psalmody. 


106        (ftije  (Eoohuion  of  Ctjttrcl)  Jttnsic 

Such  hymns  may  be  used,  perhaps, 
among  the  degraded  class  who  are  drawn 
to  street  services,  or  they  may  please  the 
rough  crowd  which  bawls  of  salvation 
among  the  tents,  but  the  taste  of  church 
people  should  be  cultivated  by  avoiding 
all  contact  with  music  of  a  vulgarizing 
type.  All  our  collections  contain  plenty 
of  sound,  good,  sensible  hymns. 
-y  oSS  '  Authors  like  Palgrave,  Whittier,  Lynch, 

w^lS     ((joss,  riorslejs)  Stanley,  and  many  others 


have  written  noble  words  for  the  use  of 
uj    **}**  the  church.     We  have  the  heritage  of  the 

Wesleys,  of  Cowper,  of  John  Newton  ;  we 
have  hymns  of  the  Puritans  which  are 
robust  in  tone  and  profound  in  feeling, 
even  if  rugged  in  form  and  sometimes 
obsolete  in  diction.  These  will  remain  as 
models  of  sense  and  solidity,  and  their 
place  in  the  religious  life  may  be  likened 
to  that  of  patriotic  songs  in  the  nation's. 

"  A  good  ear  and  a  good  musical  taste 
are  not  enough  to  qualify  a  man  for  being 
a  judge  of  music.  The  more  popular 
critic,  the  ready-made  censor,  usually  re- 
quires, in  the  cant  phrase  of  the  brother- 


&b*  ©ttolntion  of  (Eljnrcli  iflnsic        107 

hood,  'tunes  he  can  carry  away  with  him.' 
There  is  a  better  test  for  everything  really 
excellent,  whether  poem,  picture,  or  music, 
— to  improve  and  grow  upon  us  with 
further  acquaintance ;  nor  need  its  first 
impression  be  vivid  or  acute." 

We  have  seen  the  goodly  store  of  fruit 
garnered  for  us  by  the  labor  of  centuries 
of  scholars.  The  questions  which  con- 
front us  at  this  stage  of  our  subject  are, 
What  use  are  we  making  of  the  vast  ma- 
terial which  we  have  inherited  ?  Are  we 
constantly  tending  to  a  higher  conception 
of  a  musical  art  ?  Are  we  pursuing  the 
course  which  modern  science  shows  is  the 
only  progressive  one — the  exercise  of  the 
natural  selection  which  must  work  here  as 
in  the  physical  world  ?  Are  we  rejecting 
the  worthless,  preserving  what  is  fit  to 
survive  in  the  learning  of  the  past,  and 
maintaining  constantly  a  receptive  attitude 
towards  fresher  and  higher  truths  ? 

Music  is  constantly  called  the  youngest 
of  the  arts.  In  spite  of  the  claim  that  she 
was  born  before  either  painting  or  poetry, 
the  sister  arts  came    to  maturity  before 


108        &b£  (Etiolation  of  Cburcl)  ifltisic 

her.  u  She  had  an  exceedingly  long  in- 
fancy." She  is  so  much  more  intangible 
and  inexplicable  than  the  others,  so  ex- 
ceedingly subjective  in  her  character,  and 
so  much  more  difficult  to  define,  that  her 
evolution  has  been  much  slower.  There 
is  no  other  art  whose  path  is  so  strewn 
with  outgrown  laws  and  exploded  theories. 
The  future  of  no  other  is  destined  to  be- 
hold greater  changes  and  developments. 
The  music  world  to-day  is  full  of  theories 
unknown  even  twenty-five  years  ago.  The 
audiences  which  fell  into  raptures  at  Jenny 
Lind's  sweet  songs  a  generation  ago  sim- 
ply could  not  have  endured  the  symphonies 
to  which  our  people  now  listen  with  absorp- 
tion. Certain  fundamental  laws  will  re- 
main, but  forms  and  combinations  will  be 
as  changing  and  as  diverse  as  the  age 
which  evolves  them  from  its  being. 


Some  &ses  atib  Abases  of  ^gmn  ittasie  JJast 
anb  JJresent 


"  So  Lycidas  sunk  low,  but  mounted  high, 
Through  the  dear  might  of  Him  that  walked  the 

waves, 
Where,  other  groves  and  other  streams  along, 
With  nectar  pure  his  oozy  locks  he  laves, 
And  hears  the  unexpressive  nuptial  song 
In  the  blest  kingdoms  meek  of  joy  and  love. 
Then  entertain  him  all  the  saints  above, 
In  solemn  troops  and  sweet  societies 
That  sing,  and  singing,  in  their  glory  move, 
And  wipe  the  tears  forever  from  his  eyes." 

— Milton, 


Chapter  4 

Very  briefly  we  have  now  indicated 
the  main  stepping-stones,  as  they  may 
be  called,  which  have  marked  the  evolu- 
tion of  church  music.  The  details  of  the 
long  process  would  fill  volumes.  From 
the  strictly  abstract  rules  in  which  Pythag- 
oras swathed  it,  the  art  passed  through 
a  similar  unyielding  system  of  bondage 
under  the  conventional  canons  of  the 
mediaeval  Church.  At  the  close  of  the 
sixteenth  century  it  stood  at  last  upon  its 
own  feet,  free  to  advance  naturally  hence- 
forth, and  spontaneously  directed  by  the 
spirit  of  development  within  itself. 

Speaking  comprehensively  of  its  evolu- 
tion, music,  after  its  first  beginnings  as 
an  expression  of  natural  emotion,  entered 
upon  a  long  period  when  it  was  occupied 
in  acquiring  its  material,  in  organizing  its 
resources  and  principles.  During  this 
time  it  almost  lost  sight   of  naturalness  ; 


ii2        (Eljc  (Stjcrltttion  of  (Eljttrcl)  fflmic 

it  got  farther  and  farther  away  from  the 
direct  expression  of  feeling  ;  it  buried  its 
head  in  the  sand  of  its  own  abstract  con- 
ceptions and  calculations. 

Exactly  the  same  thing  happened  in 
the  sister  arts  :  painting  and  poetry  both 
passed  through  their  stage  of  bondage  to 
the  hard-and-fast  formula  of  classicism, 
which  yet  does  not  preclude  a  certain 
beauty  of  its  own.  But  the  day  came 
when  these  forms  were  cast  aside,  or 
rather  they  opened  a  hard  outer  shell  and 
showed  a  glowing  heart — the  infinite, 
eternal,  prolific  heart  of  Nature.  The 
moment  had  come  when  beauty  in  the 
abstract  had  attained  its  highest  degree 
of  perfection  ;  it  was  a  creation  of  spar- 
kling ice  or  marble  only,  dazzling  and 
beautiful  indeed,  but  lacking  in  the  human 
element  to  give  it  life.  Then  the  pendu- 
lum began  to  swing  back  again  toward 
the  fuller  expression  of  feeling,  of  pro- 
found human  emotions.  Music,  in  com- 
mon with  the  other  arts,  reached  a  higher 
plane  when  the  Renaissance  brought  the 
artist  into  closer  contact  with  human  life, 


®bc  (Evolution  of  €bnrcli  ittnsic        113 

human  emotion,  and  natural  feeling,  not 
merely  on  the  ground  of  their  beauty, 
but  because  they  alone  are  interesting 
and  attractive.  It  was  the  dawning  of 
Romanticism,  that  movement  which  to- 
day is  the  preponderating  influence  in 
modern  art,  and  which  declares  truthful- 
ness to  Nature  to  be  the  end  of  art  and 
the  only  standard  of  criticism. 

How  did  this  movement  affect  sacred 
music?  It  did  so  most  powerfully.  It 
brought  the  music  of  the  Church  nearer  to 
the  ordinary  worshipper's  own  life.  It  in- 
troduced the  personal  element.  Music 
ceased  to  be  only  a  "  branch  of  mathe- 
matics "  cleverly  handled  by  scholarly 
composers ;  it  began  to  be  something 
vastly  more  vital  than  a  mere  sequence 
of  abstract  conceptions.  People  ceased 
to  care  that  canon  and  fugue  could  be 
reversed  and  inversed,  could  proceed  by 
"  contrary  "  or  "  parallel  "  motion  ;  they 
stood  no  longer  afar  off  gazing  on  the 
sacrifice  of  the  mass  ;  they  needed  words, 
common  words  which  they  understood,  to 
voice  the  joys  and  sorrows,  the  aspirations 

8 


n4       &Ik  ©tjolntion  of  €l]ttrcb  JHtisic 

and  repentance  of  their  own  hearts.  This 
was  the  cry  which  Luther  and  Wesley  an- 
swered by  giving  them  hymns  in  their 
mother  tongues. 

A  store  of  good  music  "  of  sound  and 
church-like  character"  was  laid  up  for  us 
by  the  English  school  of  composers.  It 
is  far  from  being  exhausted,  nor  can  it 
soon  be  outworn  ;  for  it  has  not  yet  been 
surpassed  as  a  model  of  music  suited  to 
divine  worship. 

It  was  the  influence  of  that  same  art 
movement  which  made  the  importance  of 
the  words  equal  to  that  of  the  music  that 
accompanied  them.  It  insisted  that  words 
truly  poetic  and  spiritual  in  their  signifi- 
cance meant  much  with  the  music  which 
gives  them  utterance.  Both  must  be  of 
an  equal  standard  of  excellence  in  order 
to  elevate  and  maintain  the  general  taste. 
There  are  always  tendencies  at  work  to 
vitiate  and  lower  the  standard.  Constant 
care  and  cultivation  alone  will  keep  the 
weeds  out  of  our  garden. 

Now  that  we  have  gone  over  the  ground, 
and  may  be  said  to  have  a  slight  acquaint- 


QL\)e  (Ebo  Union  of  (Eljnrcl)  iflnsic        115 

ance  with  what  has  been  already  accom- 
plished, we  may  permit  ourselves  to  criti- 
cise a  few  of  the  faults  in  common  prac- 
tice, and  to  express  some  observations  as 
to  the  principles  which  in  our  judgment 
should  regulate  future  efforts.  Music  is 
a  science  as  well  as  an  art.  A  science 
seldom  if  ever  stands  alone,  but  involves 
others,  sometimes  very  closely  related  to 
each  other.  Music  as  a  science  relates  to 
physics,  to  acoustics,  and  to  psychology. 
It  has  so  much  to  do  with  natural  phenom- 
ena that  although  a  musical  thought  is 
one  of  the  most  evanescent  and  intangible 
of  creations,  still  we  can  name,  classify,  and 
arrange  in  order  both  its  elements  and  its 
effects. 

In  the  language  of  the  scientific  philos- 
opher, sound  is  the  material  that  music  is 
made  of  ;  therefore,  music  is  based  upon 
acoustics  as  one  of  its  foundation  stones. 

Second,  Since  the  aim  of  music  is  to  be 
heard,  and  the  auditory  apparatus  of  the 
hearer  must  be  stirred,  the  science  of 
music  also  rests  on  physiology. 

Third,  As    the    effect    of    the    musical 


n6        Qi\\t  (KtJolution  of  Cljttrcl)  fttnsic 

sound  does  not  cease  with  the  auditory- 
nerve,  but  penetrates  beyond  the  mere 
perception  of  sound,  till  it  touches  the 
higher  faculties  and  transmits  an  emotion 
or  an  idea  to  the  brain,  therefore,  the  last, 
and  we  may  say  the  chief,  of  the  sciences 
which  support  music  is  the  science  of 
psychology. 

We  have  now  reached  the  end  of  the 
chain,  and  we  find  that,  as  a  science, 
music  rests  on  acoustics,  physiology,  and 
psychology ;  an  entirely  different  conclu- 
sion from  that  of  the  old  students,  who 
called  music  "  nothing  but  a  branch  of 
mathematics."  Nevertheless,  since  math- 
ematics are  a  part  of  physics,  and  we 
have  seen  that  music  rests  on  physics,  so 
far  it  does  involve  mathematics  ;  and  the 
composer  of  sacred  as  well  as  secular 
harmony  must  concern  himself  with  these 
facts. 

As  an  art,  our  modern  music  is  "  the 
sum  of  all  the  music  which  has  been  sung 
or  played  or  written "  from  the  time  of 
Pythagoras  and  Sappho  until  the  present 
day.     It  is  more  self-reliant  in  its  means 


&!)£  (Koolntion  of  Clinrcl)  ittnsic        117 

of  expression  than  any  of  the  other  arts  ; 
it  depends  less  upon  Nature  than  they  do 
both  in  the  material  it  employs  and  in  the 
result  it  creates.  Painting  and  poetry 
both  require  natural  objects  to  enable 
them  to  manifest  themselves.  Without  the 
material  of  paint  and  canvas,  and  of  the 
objects  which  are  represented  by  their 
use,  painting  could  not  exist.  Poetry  is 
less  dependent,  but  it  also  portrays  nature 
and  humanity  as  its  themes  ;  it  says  some- 
thing about  objects  we  all  understand  and 
feel. 

Music,  on  the  contrary,  is  wholly  sub- 
jective. It  is  thought  originating  in  the 
mind  of  the  composer  and  having  no  being 
anywhere  else.  Nature  has  no  hand  in 
producing  it.  It  takes  form  in  sound, 
having  no  shape,  no  tangibility,  and  re- 
lating solely  to  something  within  the  mind 
of  its  creator,  and  going  straight  to  the 
mind  of  its  hearer.  Nothing  is  produced 
that  can  be  seen  or  handled,  measured  or 
compared  ;  nor  does  it  resemble  any  pro- 
totype. It  does  not  pause,  it  leaves  no 
trace,  and  when  it  ceases  naught  remains 


n8       H\)c  Solution  of  Cbttrcl)  Jttusic 

but  the  echo  existing  in  the  mind  of  the 
listener.  Its  very  nature  expresses  only- 
spiritual  relations.  Can  there  be  anything 
more  unsubstantial,  transitory,  and  elusive? 
Two  mental  states  are  alone  concerned 
with  its  cause,  results,  and  effects.  It  is 
as  though  a  soul  spoke  to  a  soul. 

Hegel  says  most  beautifully  of  this : 
"  Music  builds  no  permanent  fabric  in 
space.  It  has  no  form  which  can  be  seen. 
It  is  a  voice.  Out  of  the  unseen,  in  skil- 
fully modulated  tones,  it  speaks  to  the 
heart  of  the  hearer.  Like  the  voice  itself, 
it  no  sooner  utters  its  word  than  it  is 
silent.  Whenever  we  would  recall  its 
message,  we  must  recite  the  informing 
word." 

Its  intensity  of  meaning  thus  makes 
music  preeminently  the  vehicle  of  religious 
feeling.  This  is  the  reason  why  it  has 
been  the  natural,  almost  the  spontaneous, 
outlet  and  accompaniment  of  devotion. 
It  also  strongly  emphasizes  the  principle 
that  the  line  of  demarcation  between 
sacred  and  secular  music  must  be  strictly 
observed.     Music  which  is  associated  with 


QL\)c  (Eooltttion  of  (Ebarcl)  ittusic        119 

worldly  thoughts  and  places  and  subjects 
cannot  accompany  holy  and  devout  medi- 
tation also,  and  it  should  never  be  heard 
in  church.  People  come  into  the  presence 
of  Almighty  God  sometimes  with  hearts 
full  of  the  rapture  of  thanksgiving,  and 
sometimes  filled  with  a  bitterness  known 
only  to  themselves  ;  it  is  an  unwarrantable 
offence  to  affront  their  ears  with  the 
strains  of  light  and  popular  melodies  bor- 
rowed from  some  frivolous  source.  The 
many  instances  in  which  well-known  hymns 
have  been  fitted  to  Volkslieder,  even 
though  authority  for  so  doing  comes  from 
so  high  an  example  as  Luther,  does  not 
controvert  this  assertion.  The  effect  has 
always  been  instinctively  felt  to  be  dis- 
tasteful, and  when  music  written  expressly 
for  the  operatic  stage  has  been  adapted 
to  anthems  and  sentences  of  sacred  im- 
port, the  incongruity  has  jarred  most 
painfully  upon  sensitive  perceptions. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  the  sources 
from  which  these  melodies  come  are  so 
ancient  and  so  little  known  that  they 
excite    no    recollections    of    their   proper 


120       (El)*  (fftjoltttion  of  CfTl)ttrcl)  Jttusic 

sphere.  The  adoption  is  then  less  repre- 
hensible ;  but  in  such  a  case  the  origin 
should  be  very  obscure  indeed,  and  even 
then  some  one  is  likely  to  trace  it  out  and 
destroy  the  feeling  of  reverence  you  may 
have  for  it  by  telling  you  that  it  is  some 
love-song  in  the  land  of  its  birth. 

What  kind  of  hymns  shall  we  use  in 
our  services,  and  what  form  of  music  is 
best  adapted  to  accompany  devotional 
thoughts  ?  There  is  great  difficulty  in 
treating  this  subject,  owing  to  the  wide 
difference  of  opinion  about  it.  Two  diver- 
gent theories  of  worship  immediately  con- 
front us — the  Ritualistic  theory  and  the 
Puritan.  The  first  appeals  to  the  senses  ; 
the  second  ignores  them,  and  addresses 
itself  entirely  to  the  intellect. 

The  Ritualist  advocates  the  use  of  the 
full  choral  service,  performed  beneath 
Gothic  arches,  by  white-robed  priest  and 
vested  choir,  before  an  altar  blazing  with 
light,  rich  with  gorgeous  coloring,  and 
clouded  with  incense.  In  this  service  the 
congregation  takes  no  audible  part,  but 
worships   in   silence    by    listening    to    the 


&f)e  Quotation  of  Clinrcl)  itttxsic        121 

choir  and  clergy.  The  Puritan,  on  the 
other  hand,  considers  such  a  service  rank 
idolatry  ;  he  permits  only  such  music  as 
that  in  which  the  whole  congregation  can 
and  shall  participate.  "Join  heart  and 
voice  with  one  accord,"  says  one  of  his 
hymns.  In  extreme  cases  the  accompani- 
ment of  an  organ  has  been  forbidden.  In 
their  religious  edifices,  almost  bare  of  or- 
nament of  any  kind,  the  Puritans  make  the 
pulpit  the  most  striking  object,  thus  em- 
phasizing their  belief  that  the  sermon  is 
the  supreme  part  of  the  service.  However 
great  its  conspicuousness,  its  severe  sim- 
plicity presents  no  suggestion  to  tempt 
any  wandering  thoughts.  "  The  lust  of 
the  eye"  is  nowhere  conciliated.  Hearty 
congregational  singing  is  encouraged,  with 
little  regard  as  to  whether  it  is  good  or 
bad.  And  if  all  will  join  in  it,  it  is  esteemed 
more  inspiring  to  individual  piety  and 
more  acceptable  to  God  than  the  most 
artistic  efforts  of  a  few  selected  singers. 

In  large  cities,  where  the  number  of 
churches  provides  a  variety  of  services  to 
meet  all  tastes  and  shades  of  opinion,  and 


122        ®|)£  (Eoohrtion  of  dl)tircl)  ittttsic 

where  the  resources  are  sufficient  to  com- 
mand all  the  accessories  of  a  cathedral 
service,  the  full  choral  service  may  be 
practised  and  even  advocated  in  many 
instances.  No  service  can  be  of  more 
dignity  and  impressiveness  or  of  greater 
beauty.  It  must,  however,  be  greatly 
modified  to  adapt  itself  to  the  resources 
of  country  parishes.  Very  often  such  at- 
tempts to  imitate  a  cathedral  service  fall 
lamentably  short  of  the  standard. 

Almost  every  one  will  agree  that  the 
hymns  in  church,  and  as  far  as  possible  the 
chants  also,  should  be  sung  by  the  whole 
congregation.  Unhappily,  good  congre- 
gational singing  is  no  easy  thing  to  get, 
and  it  is  almost  as  difficult  to  retain.  The 
result  where  it  is  clung  to  is  always  distress- 
ing and  generally  intolerable.  The  good 
sisters  who  love  to  sing  what  they  con- 
sider an  alto,  a  third  below  the  melody,  the 
pious  old  gentleman  who  shambles  after 
the  tune  an  octave  lower  than  the  proper 
pitch,  the  person  behind  you  who  keeps 
up  what  they  used  to  call  counter,  the  half 
of  the  meeting  who  are  dragging  along 


(Efje  (fftjolntion  of  (El)ttrcl)  ittnsic        123 

half  a  bar  behind  the  time,  and  the  other 
half  who  use  their  noses  to  sing  with — we  all 
have  suffered  too  much  and  often  at  their 
hands  to  dwell  on  the  description.  Pre- 
centors may  volunteer  to  "  raise  the  tune  ; " 
but  in  most  cases  it  is  absolutely  indispen- 
sable that  some  sort  of  a  choir  should 
lead.  And  this  choir,  in  non-liturgical 
churches  more  especially,  too  often  suc- 
ceeds in  getting  the  upper  hand,  and  ends 
in  silencing  the  congregation.  It  has  too 
often  resulted  in  the  quartette  choir,  one 
of  the  most  deadly  of  devices  for  inducing 
dulness  and  coldness  of  devotion.  If  the 
question  is  asked  whether  the  people 
ought  to  sing  themselves,  a  hearty  assent 
will  be  given  by  all  grades  and  sects  of 
church  people.  In  God's  house,  on  Sun- 
day morning,  an  attempt  to  compete  with 
the  concert  room  is  hardly  conducive  to 
spirituality. 

The  compositions  known  as  "  Moody 
and  Sankey  hymns  "  appear  to  lie  very 
close  to  the  hearts  of  a  large  class  of 
people.  In  England  these  are  called 
"American    gospel    hymns."     The    char- 


124        &be  (EtJohttion  of  (fllitxrcl)  Jttnsic 

acter  of  piety  they  encourage  is  somewhat 
superficial,  not  to  say  hysterical ;  they  are 
full  of  extravagant  and  often  foolish  state- 
ments ;  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they 
stir  the  hearts  of  the  common  throng. 
The  refrains  which  are  generally  attached 
to  them  are  readily  caught  by  ear ;  and 
that  wave  of  emotional  sympathy,  easily 
started  in  large  audiences,  soon  sweeps 
over  the  meeting,  and  choir  and  congre- 
gation are  at  once  drawn  into  close  accord. 
When  Mr.  Sankey  himself  used  those 
hymns  he  adopted  a  number  of  devices  to 
arouse  and  compel  this  sympathetic  feel- 
ing between  the  choir  and  the  audience. 
At  one  of  the  meetings  he  conducted  the 
hymn  was  given  out,  "  Take  me  as  I  am." 
Each  of  the  first  three  lines  was  sung  by 
a  third  of  the  congregation,  and  the  whole 
body  joined  in  the  fourth  line,  "  And  take 
me  as  I  am."  These  inventions  of  Mr. 
Sankey  were  very  telling,  and  very  suc- 
cessful in  moving  the  emotions  of  his 
hearers  strangely.  The  following  anec- 
dote from  his  revival  meetings  in  England 
illustrates  his  methods  : 


®be  (Evolution  of  dtjnrcl)  Jttnsic        125 

u  At  Leicester  the  meetings  were  held 
in  a  skating  rink,  where  there  was  a  far-off 
gallery  almost  an  eighth  of  a  mile  from 
the  platform.     The  hymn  given  out  was, 

*  We  shall  meet  beyond  the  river, 
By  and  by,  by  and  by. ' 

Mr.  Sankey  sung  the  first  line  himself  ;  the 
choir  was  to  sing  the  first  '  by  and  by,' 
and  the  people  in  the  distant  gallery  the 
second.  The  last  response  was  so  long 
in  coming  that  on  the  platform  they 
thought  the  directions  had  been  misunder- 
stood. Almost  as  if  indeed  from  another 
world  the  words  at  last  floated  to  them, 
touching  most  powerfully  the  feelings  of 
the  congregation."  Under  the  manage- 
ment of  Mr.  Sankey  these  performances 
appeared  spontaneous  and  intensely  devo- 
tional. No  doubt,  the  participants  were 
moved  by  profound  and  genuine  feeling ; 
yet  we  are  unable  to  approve  of  the  intro- 
duction of  such  melodies  into  church  ser- 
vices. It  is,  indeed,  very  questionable 
whether  it  is  best  even  in  mission  meet- 
ings to  allow  the  use  of  musical  composi- 


126        &l)e  evolution  of  €t]arcl)  ittttsic 

tions  which  we  could  not  tolerate  in 
church.  Furthermore,  the  musical  taste 
which  has  been  cultivated  by  constant 
association  with  the  old  English  hymn 
tunes,  or  even  by  the  full  modern  harmo- 
nies of  Dykes  and  Barnby,  would  not 
exchange  their  stately  swing  and  dignity 
of  measure  for  the  insipidity,  too  often 
the  vulgarity,  of  the  gospel  hymns  unhap- 
pily esteemed  American.  The  musical 
structure  of  these  hymns  is  very  slight ; 
the  harmony  has  hardly  any  variety,  sel- 
dom changing  more  than  once  in  the  bar ; 
and  they  employ  the  march  rhythms  so 
frequently  that  they  produce  an  effect  of 
monotony,  and  prove  how  deficient  in 
knowledge  and  originality  their  composers 
are. 

What  requisite  qualities  should  good 
tunes  possess  ?  And  how  shall  the  hearer 
of  average  ability  recognize  them  ?  State- 
liness,  majesty,  solidity,  grandeur,  dignity, 
beauty,  purity  of  style,  fulness  of  har- 
mony, fine  modulation  and  rhythm — all 
these  are  characteristics  of  good  music  ; 
they    are    essential    to    the    formation    of 


©l)c  (Euohrtion  of  QThnrcl)  JHtisic       127 

model  tunes.  They  should  also  be 
"vocal ;"  that  is,  singable.  In  each  chord 
the  harmony  should  be  complete,  and  it 
should  not  be  composed  of  chords  of  two 
or  three  notes,  but  of  several ;  the  har- 
mony should  be  written  in  four  parts,  and 
it  should  not  depend  upon  the  accompani- 
ment to  fill  up  deficiencies  in  the  compo- 
sition. There  are  plenty  of  good  hymn 
tunes.  Recent  composers,  such  as  Sulli- 
van, Dykes,  Goss,  Barnby,  and  Smart,  in 
England;  Le  Jeune,  Parker,  Hodges,  and 
many  others,  in  America,  have  produced 
excellent  examples ;  and,  as  the  previous 
pages  have  indicated,  there  is  an  inex- 
haustible supply  of  earlier  date.  Some 
of  these  were  composed  by  the  re- 
formers, both  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic, 
and  some  by  English  and  Continental 
writers  who  imitated  them.  All  the 
German  chorale  belong  to  this  class, 
such  as  the  melody  called  "  Basle"  set 
to  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fourth 
Psalm,  "Old  Hundredth,"  "Dundee," 
"French,"  "Windsor,"  "St.  David's," 
"  St.  Michael's,"  "  St.    Ann's,"  "  Martyrs," 


128        (Etje  (EtJolntion  of  <2Tl)tircl)  ittaeic 

M  Hanover,"  and  many  more  of  the  same 
structure.  Most  of  these  are  written  in 
common  time,  and  each  note  keeps  step 
with  a  syllable.  They  should  be  taken  in 
rather  slow  time,  and  they  produce  a  grand 
and  majestic  effect. 

"  Martyrs,"  "  Dundee,"  "  French,"  and 
"  Windsor  "  were  of  the  "  twelve  orthodox 
tunes  "  exclusively  sanctioned  for  a  long 
period  in  the  stern  Presbyterian  conven- 
ticles of  Scotland.  Burns  in  the  "  Cot- 
ter's Saturday  Night  "  speaks  of 

li  Plaintive  i  Martyrs,'  worthy  of  the  name." 

Besides  these  tunes  of  a  grand  and 
heavy  character,  there  are  others  of  a 
little  later  date,  which,  though  of  the  same 
style,  are  somewhat  softened,  and  are 
more  flowing  and  melodious.  Examples 
of  this  class  are  "  Rockingham,"  "  Ware- 
ham,"  and  "  Wiltshire."  While  some  of 
these  possess  many  of  the  characteristics 
of  the  grand  class  of  hymns,  their  rugged- 
ness  has  been  slightly  softened  ;  they  are 
generally  written  in  triple  time,  which 
always  makes  a  lighter  effect,  and  "pass- 


QEIlc  (Etiolation  of  Cbnrch  ittnsic       129 

ing,"  or  sliding-,  notes  give  them  a  still 
more  flowing  quality.  "  Duke  Street  "  is 
one  more  example  of  this  class. 

The  "  florid  "  style  of  tune  is  still  more 
elaborate.  The  melody  is  broken  up  by 
grace  notes,  dotted  fourths,  quavers,  syn- 
copations, and  other  embellishments.  To 
this  class  belongs  the  "  fugal "  tune,  in 
which  some  of  the  parts  are  occasionally 
silent.  This  kind  of  a  tune  was  a  great 
favorite  with  our  grandfathers  half  a  cen- 
tury ago.  Those  fugal  tunes  were  some- 
times extended  so  as  almost  to  make  them 
into  a  little  anthem.  In  modern  days 
most  of  these  have  been  excluded  from 
our  compilations.  The  fugal  theme  ap- 
pears in  the  middle  of  these  tunes,  and 
ends  with  the  repetition  of  the  words  of 
the  last  line,  where  all  the  voices  and 
parts  unite  with  great  vigor  in  a  final 
strain. 

On  the  whole  it  has  been  a  gain  to 
discard  these  fugal  tunes,  though  some 
examples  might  be  retained  if  their  har- 
monies had  been  slightly  altered  so  as  to 
simplify  them.  They  were  not  adapted 
9 


130       ®l)£  ^oolntion  of  (STtjurcl)  ifltasic 

to  congregational  use,  and  the  repetition 
often  made  them  ludicrous.  A  very  droll 
description  of  their  performance  appears 
in  Frasers  Magazine  for  September,  i860. 
The  choir  was  engaged  upon  the  Eigh- 
teenth Psalm,  set  to  one  of  these  fugal 
tunes.  "  Take  two  lines  as  an  illustration 
of  their  style  : 

1  And  snatched  me  from  the  furious  rage 
Of  threatening  waves  that  proudly  swelled.' 

The  words,  '  And  snatched  me  from,'  were 
repeated  severally  by  the  altos,  the  tenors, 
and  the  bass  voices  ;  then  all  together  sung 
the  words  two  or  three  times  over.  In 
like  manner  did  they  toss  and  tumble  over 
'  the  furious  rage/  apparently  enjoying 
the  whirligig  scurrying  of  their  fugues, 
like  so  many  kittens  chasing  their  own 
tails  ;  till  at  length,  after  they  had  torn 
and  worried  that  single  line  even  to  the 
exhaustion  of  the  most  powerful  lungs — 
after  a  very  red-faced  bass  had  become 
perceptibly  apoplectic  about  the  eyes,  and 
a  tall,  thin  man  with  a  long  nose,  which 
was  his  principal  vocal  organ,  and  which 


fZHje  evolution  of  (&\)txxt\)  Ittusie        131 

sang  tenor,  was  getting  out  of  wind — they 
all  together  rushed  pell-mell  into  'The 
threatening  waves  that  proudly  swelled.'" 
Another  amusing  illustration  of  the  same 
kind,  but  with  a  setting  more  familiar  to 
us  because  in  our  own  New  England,  is 
from  the  pen  of  Mrs.  Stowe,  and  describes 
the  choir  in  her  father's  church  at  Litch- 
field. It  is  of  the  time  of  our  grand- 
fathers. "  The  glory  of  the  old  meeting 
house  (the  Noah's-Ark-looking  wooden 
church)  was  the  singers'  seat,  the  em- 
pyrean of  those  who  rejoiced  in  the  mys- 
terious art  of  fa-sol-la-ing.  There  they 
sat  in  the  gallery  that  lined  three  sides  of 
the  house — treble,  counter,  tenor,  and 
bass — each  with  its  appropriate  leaders 
and  supporters.  But  the  Magnus  Apollo 
of  the  whole  concern  occupied  the  seat  of 
honor,  exactly  in  the  midst  of  the  gallery, 
and  opposite  the  minister.  With  what  an 
air  did  he  sound  the  important  fa-sol-la-fa 
in  the  ears  of  the  waiting  gallery,  who 
stood  with  open  mouths  ready  to  give 
their  pitch  preparatory  to  the  general 
set-to  !     But  the  glory  of  his  art  consisted 


132        f&^e  ©flotation  of  CHnrcli  Music 

in  the  execution  of  those  good  old  billowy 
compositions  called  fuguing  tunes,  when 
the  four  parts  that  compose  the  choir  take 
up  the  song,  and  go  racing  around,  one 
after  the  other,  each  singing  a  different 
set  of  words ;  till  at  length,  by  some  inex- 
plicable magic,  they  all  come  together 
again,  and  go  sailing  smoothly  out  into  a 
rolling  sea  of  harmony.  I  remember  the 
wonder  with  which  I  used  to  look  from 
side  to  side  when  tenor,  treble,  and  counter, 
and  bass  were  thus  roaring  and  foaming ; 
it  verily  seemed  as  if  the  psalm  were  going 
to  pieces  among  the  breakers ;  and  the 
delighted  astonishment  when  I  found  that 
each  particular  verse  did  emerge  whole  and 
uninjured  from  the  storm." 

"  Antioch  "  is  one  of  these  fugal  hymns 
still  retained  in  some  modern  collections, 
perhaps  as  a  curiosity,  for  the  writer  does 
not  remember  having  heard  any  choir 
sing  it  for  many  years.  It  was  always 
sung  to  "Joy  to  the  World,  the  Lord  is 
Come." 

There  are,  however,  a  few  tunes  where 
the  repetition,  which   adds   strength   and 


Qlt)t  (foolntion  of  (Etjnrcl)  ittusic        133 

force  to  the  hymn,  is  not  to  be  condemned, 
but  rather  commended.  In  the  "  Adeste 
Fideles"  the  effect  is  dignified  and  musi- 
cal. In  "  Miles  Lane"  the  repeated  acclaim, 
"Crown  Him,"  of  the  last  line,  produces 
a  very  fine  effect.  All  the  undesirable  ele- 
ments of  the  old  form  of  repetition  are  left 
out. 

Returning  to  the  question  of  the  proper 
structure  of  good  hymn  tunes,  there  is  a 
large  class  which,  though  belonging  to  the 
flowing  or  melodious  tune,  are  still  sedate 
and  in  excellent  style,  the  harmony  being 
full  throughout  in  four  parts.  "  Christ- 
mas "  is  flowing,  and  yet  dignified  and 
stately.  Then  there  are  some  sweeter 
tunes,  which  harmonize  with  gentle,  tran- 
quil words  :  "  Heber,"  for  instance,  which 
always  suits  that  sweet  old  hymn,  "  Calm 
on  the  Listening  Ear  of  Night,"  better 
than  any  other  tune  does.  One  does  not 
always  feel  like  shouting  a  warlike  strain. 
Nothing  falls  more  sweetly  on  the  spirit 
at  Evensong  than  "  Softly  now  the  Light 
of  Day,"  sung  to  the  softly  gliding  melody 
of  "  Holley." 


134       ®be  (EDohxtion  of  (STl)tircl)  Music 

A  very  excellent  modern  writer  has  spo- 
ken in  these  words  of  these  tunes,  which  he 
terms  at  once  florid  and  melodious  :  "  The 
writer  would  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood 
to  estimate  these  tunes  as  highly  as  the 
grand  tune  with  one  note  to  each  sylla- 
ble. He  simply  contends  that  the  florid 
tunes  are  often  melodious  in  a  high  degree, 
and  that  their  cheerful,  tuneful  notes  are 
preferable  to  the  poor,  whining,  sensuous 
strains  now  enjoying  a  certain  kind  of 
popularity."  The  tunes  he  refers  to  are 
"Milton,"  "Lydia,"  "  Sheldon  "  or  "  New 
York,"  "  Gainsborough,"  "Boston,"  and 
several  others.  "  Many  of  the  plainer 
kind  of  florid  tunes  where  the  harmony 
is  full  throughout,  if  taken  at  a  proper 
pace  and  correctly  accompanied,  are  by 
no  means  so  objectionable  as  it  is  fash- 
ionable to  pronounce  them.  Nay,  many 
of  them  are  so  stirring,  and  many  have 
something  so  noble  in  them,  that  it  must 
be  extreme  fastidiousness  that  rejects 
them.  Among  the  composers  of  tunes 
more  or  less  florid  are  found  the  names  of 
Adams,  Stanley,  Jeremiah  Clark,  Dr.  Ran- 


Zi)c  (gvoinlion  of  Cljnrcli  fflnsic        135 

dall,  Dr.  Arnold,  Dr.  Hayes,  Dr.  Worgan, 
and  Dr.  Boyce." 

The  modern  tendency  is  to  render  our 
psalmody  simpler  ;  and  as  this  makes  it 
better  for  congregational  singing,  it  is  to 
be  commended.  The  harmony  in  four 
parts  is  to  be  preferred  to  that  in  many, 
and  florid  counterpoint  is  no  longer  em- 
ployed. 

The  collections  of  hymns  are  very  nu- 
merous and  ample.  There  is  not  a 
denomination  which  has  not  its  own 
approved  hymnal.  It  is  a  pity  that  the 
compilers  of  almost  all  have  failed  to  bor- 
row as  many  of  the  German  chorals  as 
they  should.  Those  chorale  are  so  ele- 
vated, and  at  the  same  time  so  simple  and 
devotional,  that  they  are  beyond  question 
the  most  perfect  models  of  hymn  tunes. 
It  is  humiliating  to  compare  our  collec- 
tions with  those  used  in  German  churches. 
In  one  for  use  in  their  Sunday-schools,  the 
title-page  bears  the  inscription  :  "  For  our 
children  only  the  best  is  good  enough." 
Such  a  motto  bears  ample  testimony  to 
the  high  standard  of  musical  taste  in  Ger- 


136        &lje  (EtJohttiott  of  Qlljttrcl)  fflttsic 

many.  One  of  their  collections  is  said  to 
contain  over  two  hundred  tunes — all  of 
them  satisfactory,  and  many  of  them  ab- 
solutely perfect  examples  of  psalm  tunes. 
If  our  compilers  would  give  us  a  few 
more  of  these  chorale  instead  of  the  fee- 
ble and  sensuous  melodies  which  are  too 
numerous  in  our  collections,  our  psalmody 
would  be  greatly  improved  ;  and,  more  im- 
portant still,  the  public  taste  would  be 
better  trained. 

It  is  very  unfortunate  that,  in  the  United 
States  especially,  the  popular  demand  is 
always  for  novelty.  The  feeling  that  we 
must  continually  have  something  new  is 
deplorable,  and  it  results  in  filling  up  our 
hymn-books  with  a  great  deal  of  very 
poor  music.  The  success  a  tune  finds  in 
the  popular  favor  is  far  from  being  a  sure 
test  of  its  real  worth.  It  is  often  enough 
a  proof  of  the  contrary ;  many  of  the 
worst  compositions,  by  being  often  used, 
have  become  favorites,  and  often  the  very 
characteristics  which  have  made  them  pop- 
ular are  precisely  those  which  render  them 
so  lacking  in  dignity  as  to  be  totally  unfit 


&b£  (Euolntion  of  CUbortl)  Jttnsic        137 

for  church.  Musical  taste  is  nowhere  at  a 
lower  level  than  in  our  own  land ;  and 
nowhere  is  there  greater  need  of  educat- 
ing it,  hopeless  as  the  task  sometimes 
seems. 

It  is  most  disastrous  to  try  to  please 
unmusical  people  by  lowering  the  stand- 
ard of  church  music  to  suit  their  ideas. 
It  will  never  be  possible  to  form  a  culti- 
vated taste  among  us  by  such  means.  The 
constant  hearing  of  good  music  is  the  only 
way  to  form  an  educated  class,  and  by 
"good  church  music"  compositions  are 
meant  that  are  artistic  in  their  construc- 
tion, suited  to  the  spirit  of  the  work, 
decorous  in  their  character,  and  singable 
by  the  congregation. 

Now  let  us  turn  for  a  moment  to  the 
hymn  music  used  by  the  Church,  and  ask 
how  it  has  fulfilled  some  of  the  conditions 
of  which  I  have  been  speaking.  The  new 
Hymnal  is  certainly  a  great  improvement 
upon  the  old  Hymnal  it  has  superseded  ; 
and  the  various  editions  sent  out,  with 
music,  are  a  still  greater  improvement 
upon  the  editions  of  the  old  Hymnal.      In 


138       GTlje  ©Dotation  of  Cljttrcl)  itttisic 

the  old  work,  many  of  the  hymn  tunes  of 
cherished  associations  seem  to  have  been 
selected  with  little  or  no  recognition  of 
any  law  of  appropriate  musical  expression. 
The  recipe  after  which  many  of  them  are 
manufactured  seems  to  have  been  some- 
thing like  this  :  Take  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  music  and  a  sufficient  number  of  words, 
and  if  the  final  musical  phrase  ends  with 
the  last  word  of  the  verse,  that  is  all  that 
is  necessary  ;  put  an  Amen  at  the  end,  and 
it  sanctifies  the  whole  proceeding,  no  mat- 
ter from  what  light  melody  the  music  may 
have  been  stolen. 

Thus  we  may  have  sung  words  which 
speak  of  the  deepest  passions  of  the  soul, 
set  to  trifling  airs  of  the  lightest  possible 
description.  We  have  used  hymns  of 
the  most  sacred  meaning  sung  to  melodies 
borrowed  from  sentimental  love-ballads 
and  the  lighter  class  of  opera.  "  Bethany," 
the  favorite  tune  to  "  Nearer,  my  God,  to 
Thee,"  presses  very  closely  upon  "  Oft  in 
the  Stilly  Night"  and  "Robin  Adair." 
Another  favorite  tune  to  "  Jesus,  Lover  of 
my  Soul,"  is  "  When  the  Swallows  Home- 


QLi)t  ©flotation  of  <EI)tircli  Jttnsic       139 

ward  Fly."  In  one  hymnal,  one  of  the 
most  solemn  hymns  in  the  collection,  "  O 
Sacred  Head  now  Wounded,"  was  sung 
to  Thalberg's  "  Amid  this  Greenwood 
Smiling."  About  thirty  years  ago  "  A 
Charge  to  keep  I  have "  was  sung 
frequently,  in  Grace  Church,  New  York 
City,  to  the  "  Prima  Donna  Waltz." 
After  such  instances  as  this  it  seems  quite 
bearable  to  hear  "  Thou  Everywhere,"  a 
popular  German  song,  sung  to  sacred 
words  as  an  anthem. 

Hardly  any  of  such  glaring  sins  against 
propriety  are  to  be  found  in  the  present  ^^ut 
Hymnal.     It  is,  on  the  whole,  probably  the    fil^  u    ^ 
best  collection  in  our  country,  presenting     /  lij+^U  1 

the  fewest  faults  and  the  greatest  number  ' 
of  excellencies.     A  great  many  poor  tunes    yy  /l£    /&tL  /,fc 
have   been    dropped  out,    and    new   ones       .  ■  Vrr     %/S 

substituted   of  real    merit.     The    general 
unsatisfactoriness  with  tunes  of  chromatic   ~/a*,   /*~44~l+<t 
passages  has  been  recognized,  and  these 
are   not   as    frequent   as    in    older  collec-    "    **&++&    *£•*/ 
tions.     As  already  said,   no  congregation       ,y_   *   *_»  .  M  /*^1 
can    tollow   with    any    accuracy   the    nice 
gradations  of  a  chromatic    sequence.     If 


*h 


140        ®|je  (gwhstion  of  (El)tircl)  Mueic 

they  attempt  to  do  so,  a  slovenly  effect  of 
slurring  is  the  result,  and  gradually  they 
learn  this  so  well  that  they  leave  the 
whole  hymn  to  the  choir.  Indeed,  it  is 
only  in  "  quartette  choirs  "  that  they  are 
much  used.  "  Seymour,"  for  instance,  a 
^f^/^v  tune  with  one  of  those  difficult  passages, 

(is  rarely  heard  nowadays.  J>  Even  in 
"  Abide  with  me "  there  is  a  passage  in 
the  bass  which  the  congregation  renders 
very  badly. 

Now,  when  music  can  so  well  interpret 
and  express  the  highest  emotions  of  man, 
when  it  is  so  eminently  the  medium  for 
the  transmission  of  religious  feeling,  we 
should  not  tolerate  the  sacrilege  of  mak- 
ing over  unfit  material,  nor  the  fitting  of 
secular  tunes  to  sacred  words  ;  this  should 
be  stigmatized  as  musical  cobbling  and 
patchwork.  The  poorest  collections  of 
camp-meeting  songs  have  not  this  sin,  at 
least,  at  their  door ;  for,  however  bad  the 
tunes  to  most  of  them  are,  they  were  written 
for  those  words  and  no  others. 

The  German  edition  of  the  Moody  and 
Sankey  hymns  has  been  enriched  there  by 


(Elje  (Evolution  of  C^nrch  Xttaeic        141 

a  full  harmony,  which  changes  their  slight 
melodies  so  completely  that  you  would 
hardly  know  them  for  the  same  as  the 
originals.  But  it  should  be  reiterated 
that  in  Germany  these  hymns  are  used 
only  by  the  smaller  sects — the  dissenters, 
so  to  speak.  In  the  Lutheran  Church  the 
introduction  of  those  trifling  tunes,  even 
for  Sunday-school  use,  would  not  be  per- 
mitted. There  is  a  certain  dignity  in  the 
German  music,  and  indeed  in  their  entire 
conception  of  the  church  service,  which 
would  not  be  unprofitable  for  us  to  con- 
sider. Not  that  we  could  transplant  their 
usages  to  our  churches  :  the  sentiments 
upon  which  those  usages  are  founded  are 
their  own,  and  this  music  is  the  outcome 
of  their  own  natures  and  of  their  own 
needs.  But  a  good  critic  knows  that  in 
all  matters  it  is  well  to  study  the  merits 
of  others,  and  our  own  failings  rather 
than  our  own  merits. 


American  (Hljtxrct)  fflmit— its  Btvtiopmtnt  anb 
limitations 


"  Over  his  keys  the  musing  organist, 
Beginning  doubtfully  and  far  away, 
First  lets  his  fingers  wander  as  they  list, 
And  builds  a  bridge  from  Dreamland  for  his  lay  : 
Then,  as  the  touch  of  his  loved  instrument 
Gains  hope  and  fervor,  nearer  draws  his  theme, 
First  guessed  by  faint  auroral  flushes  sent 
Along  the  wavering  vista  of  his  dream." 

— Lowell. 


Chapter  5 

In  America  no  school  of  sacred  music 
has  yet  appeared  which  will  bear  com- 
parison with  that  of  England.  The  music 
of  England  has  been  adopted  outright  by 
the  cultured  classes,  or  where  musicians 
have  attempted  sacred  compositions  they 
have  been  usually  adaptations  or  trans- 
positions   of    established    themes.       The  ,  no 

stern    and    gloomy  ftymnology3'oI    their       L  ^^^  0  J*r  y  j 

fathers  of  the  CommonwealtnT  They  used,  .?    „ 

also,  a  few  tones  of  a  strange,  quavering      *>*~^J    A_ 

character,  as  "  China,"  for  instance.     This 

tune  was  sung  to  the  funeral  hymn  "  Why 

do  you  mourn  departing  friends?"  and  its 

unexpected  turns  and  quavers  produce  a 

very  weird  effect.      It  was   probably   not 

immediately  after  their  arrival  that  they 

used  these  tunes,  but  later,  in   1700    and 

after.     "Federal  Street,"  "Rockingham,"  ) 

"Hamburg,"  "  Brattle  Street,"  "  Siloam  " 

/?+*#}<.  -v. 


10 


146       &l)£  (Etjoiution  of  Cljnrcl)  Jttasic 

— these  are  some  of  the  tunes  our  ances- 
tors sang  as  they  sat  nearly  all  day  in  the 
white  wooden  meeting-house,  always  built 
on  a  hill,  and  in  which  no  heat  tempered 
the  severity  either  of  the  winter  weather 
or  of  the  austere  doctrines.  The  women, 
however,  sat  with  their  feet  on  little 
square  tin  boxes  full  of  hot  coals — this 
small  concession  being  granted  to  femi- 
nine weakness. 

Our    non-  liturgical    churches    depend 
1[tt  a<^  almost  wholly  upon  the  hymns  for  music 

/  -/        -^    /yalt.t-   in  their  services,  so  that  it  is  most  unfor- 
tunate  when    they   are    deprived    of    the 
4U*s/£l*»4    fis&*>*i    advantages  of  good  tunes.      In  later  days 

they  have  not,  generally,  been  as  careful 
to  follow  good  usage  in  music  as  they 
should  ;  but  have  adapted  sacred  words  to 
popular  melodies  and  to  trifling  "  catchy  " 
tunes,  with  absolute  disregard  to  propriety 
and  decorum.  They  have  not  hesitated 
to  employ  the  songs  of  Mr.  Sankey,  and 
others  of  his  type,  in  their  church  services 
as  well  as  in  their  prayer-meetings.  The 
slight  structure  and  trivial  harmony  of 
these  tunes  only  vitiate  the  public  taste, 


I 


ftlje  Qfoolntion  of  (Eljtircb  iJttnsic        147 


and  strengthen  the  impression  abroad  that 
in  America  only  the  cheapest  forms  of  art 
can  flourish.  Lowell  Mason  and  Thomas 
Hastings  are  composers  of  a  somewhat 
higher  average.  "Olivet"  and  "Beth- 
any "  are  works  of  Lowell  Mason  ;  neither 
can  be  said  to  present  much  that  is 
praiseworthy. 

Over  twenty  tunes  in  the  hymnal  of  the  ^v£/*-c    <*-*-*-    t^t 
Episcopal    Church    are    from    American  tJT  £r    7^Tc^r^ 
sources.     George    Webb,  Lowell    Mason, 
Dr.     Hodges,     Thomas      Hastings,     and  L    n c^^  ' 

William  Bradbury  are  the  leading  contrib-  //,•    r 
utors.      "  Toplady  "  and  "  Rock  of  Ages  " 

by  Hastings,  "Missionary  Hymn"  by  L.    //uZ     4U*     ^*-^£ 
Mason,   "Webb"  by  George  Webb,  and 

"Woodworth"  and    "Zephyr"    by    Brad-     M*~Z     '*      "»y 
bury,  are  probably  the  best  known  exam-      .   _        .^ 
pies  of  each  of  these  composers. 

We  cannot  help  feeling  that  the  present  m     -  /      J 

conditions  in  America  are   not  favorable  / 

for  the  production  of  sacred  music.  That 
devout  and  reverential  spirit  which  pro- 
duced the  finest  types  of  the  seventeenth 
century  is  certainly  wanting  among  us, 
and    nothing   can    supply    its    deficiency. 


148       QL\\t  (Etiolation  of  €t)ttrd)  ittnsic 

Such  musicians  as  we  possess  have  pro- 
duced little  that  is  successful  in  that  line. 
A  distinguished  choirmaster  in  one  of  our 
leading  cities  says:  " Englishmen  who 
take  their  pleasures  so  sadly,  take  a  per- 
haps equally  serious  view  of  the  music 
which  they  write  for  Divine  worship, 
deeming  themselves  unworthy  sons  of 
Jubal  if  their  church  compositions  con- 
tain soupgons  of  secularity,  or  remind  one 
of  things  mundane.  They  abjure  the 
melody  that  cloys,  that  would  do  equally 
well  for  a  waltz  movement.  They  avoid 
the  'popular'  anthem  which  contains  a 
sweet  little  tune  for  the  solo  soprano 
(very  high),  a  line  for  the  alto  (very  low), 
followed  by  a  '  cute '  little  melody  (with  a 
turn-turn  accompaniment)  for  the  tenor, 
and  half  a  line  of  growl  for  the  bass, 
winding  up  with  a  grand  crash  for  every- 
body, generally  irrespective  of  the  mean- 
ing of  the  words,  astonishing  and  (con- 
sequently) delighting  the  congregation, 
who  naturally  don't  know  anything  about 
it,  never  having  had  an  opportunity  to 
learn." 


(Etje  ©Delation  of  CSEhurch  ittnsic        149 

Perhaps  we  may  add  that  American 
composers  are  more  free  in  their  methods, 
and  not  bound  by  such  ecclesiastical  ideas  ; 
consequently  their  work  is  formulated  on 
lines  whose  meaning  we  may  not  under- 
stand. From  the  category  of  such,  how- 
ever, we  may  except  Dr.  Hopkins,  Dr. 
Tuckerman,  and,  in  many  cases,  Dudley 
Buck,  though  work  of  the  latter  is  not 
always  of  equal  merit.  These  last  have 
written  some  distinctly  good  "composi- 
tions in  the  line  of  anthems  and  musical 
services. 

Will  the  so-called  "  music  of  the  future  " 
produce  any  change  in  the  established 
type  of  sacred  compositions  ?  It  is  not 
easy  to  think  that  it  can.  The  intentional 
discords,  the  startling,  peculiar,  and  novel 
harmonic  effects  which  characterize  the 
new  school  are  typical,  not  of  the  spirit  of 
worship,  but  of  the  conflict  and  mental 
unrest  of  modern  thought — the  Zeitgeist 
or  "movement  of  the  time,"  as  Matthew 
Arnold  calls  it.  In  a  high  degree  this 
music  appeals  to  the  intellect.  It  voices 
the  restlessness,  the  discontent,  the  ration- 


150        &l)£  Solution  of  (STliurcb  fflusic 

alistic  temper  of  our  century,  and  it  may 
continue  more  and  more  to  do  so. 

With  all  these  questions  true  devotion 
has  naught  to  do.  It  belongs  to  the 
inner  sphere  of  the  soul  and  of  the  heart 
of  humanity,  which,  through  all  the  cen- 
turies, "  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,"  are 
substantially  the  same.  There  are  no 
new  sounds  in  the  gamut  of  human  joy 
and  sorrow,  rapture  and  anguish,  weak- 
ness and  despair.  The  mysteries  of  pain 
and  death,  the  helplessness  of  each  soul 
when  these  mighty  forces  grasp  it — in 
every  generation  these  are  the  same, 
and  they  bring  us  to  our  knees  before 
the  altar  of  God.  As  no  form  of  archi- 
tecture can  ever  surpass  the  Gothic  for 
church  buildings,  as  no  religious  paint- 
ings have  excelled  the  works  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  so  the  form  in  which  the 
voice  of  prayer  and  praise  was  fixed  by 
Palestrina,  Bach,  Handel,  and  Purcell 
seems  perfect ;  no  one  is  likely  to  outdo 
these  models. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  limitations  of  music 
that  it  holds  no  relation  to  reason.    Music 


QThje  (Koolntion  of  (JSThnrch  iflnsic        151 

is  entirely  outside  the  sphere  of  reason. 
The  latter  begins  to  act  only  when  it  is 
furnished  with  distinctly  formulated  con- 
ceptions, or  thoughts,  and  these  are  not 
found  in  music.  Reason  and  music,  there- 
fore, have  nothing  in  common  with  each 
other,  but  belong  to  different  departments 
of  the  soul.  Music  goes  in  through  sense- 
perception,  and  addresses  the  feelings  di- 
rectly as  such.  It  can  give  us  a  prolonged 
action  of  the  soul,  an  emotional  history, 
and  in  this  is  its  great  superiority  in  spir- 
ituality to  other  forms  of  art.  The  proper 
sphere  of  music  is  to  portray  the  progress 
of  the  soul  from  grief  or  sadness,  to  com- 
fort, joy,  and  blessedness  ;  this  it  can  do 
with  an  intelligibility  entirely  its  own. 
Whatever  is  bright,  tender,  joyful,  daring, 
noble,  music  expresses  with  peculiar  force. 
It  is  the  art  of  the  ideal  sphere  of  the  soul, 
the  sphere  into  which  sin  and  its  conse- 
quent suffering  have  never  entered.  Evil 
lies  outside  of  its  pure  province  "  (Hegel). 
One  frequently  meets  with  the  opinion 
that  vocal  music  has  but  a  small  office, 
that  of  adding  force  to  words,  and  that  its 


152        (Elje  (foohitiott  of  (SHjnrcl)  itttxeie 

only  raison  d'etre  is  to  heighten  the  effect 
of  poetic  speech.  Besides  this  duty,  or 
instead  of  it,  music  as  an  artistic  arrange- 
ment of  sounds  has  a  language  of  its  own, 
and  an  independent  power  of  expressing 
sentiments  and  combining  ideas.  Some 
have  claimed  that  the  keynote,  or  funda- 
mental tone,  is  related  to  the  combinations 
of  the  following  sounds  in  a  way  similar 
to  that  in  which  the  leading  thought  in  a 
sentence  is  related  to  the  arrangement  of 
of  the  words.  The  keynote,  they  say,  de- 
termines the  leading  sound,  and  all  other 
sounds  in  the  sequence  are  dependent 
upon  it,  as  the  main  idea  in  a  sentence 
generally  implies  the  method  of  arranging 
the  words. 

We  would  rather  say  that  it  is  not  the 
keynote,  but  the  leading  phrase,  which  de- 
termines the  thought  in  music.  In  every 
musical  phrase  there  is  a  certain  definite 
idea.  Musicians  call  it  the  leading,  or 
principal,  theme  ;  all  the  notes  in  the  se- 
ries relate  to  this  theme  :  but  it  is  not  the 
keynote  to  the  passage  ;  it  is  a  series  of 
notes,  or  tones,  constituting  a  musical  sen- 


®l)c  evolution  of  GTIjurcl)  ittusic        153 

tence.  Thus  the  musical  thought  does 
not  depend  upon  one  single  note,  but 
upon  a  combination  of  notes  ;  just  as  in 
language  the  thought  is  not  bound  up  in 
a  single  word,  but  requires  a  whole  sen- 
tence, combining  many  words.  But  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  "the  language 
of  music  bears  little  relation  to  that  of 
formal  thought.  Each  utterance  is  the 
complement  of  the  other ;  they  blend  and 
harmonize,  yet  neither  can  be  definitely 
expressed  in  the  terms  of  the  other. 
Music  is  the  only  art  whose  theme  cannot 
be  translated  or  accurately  described." 

An  interesting  illustration,  however,  of 
the  attempt  to  represent  a  given  idea  in 
music  may  be  found  in  Bernard  Bosan- 
quet's  "  History  of  ^Esthetic."  The  ques- 
tion was  whether  any  composer  had  suc- 
ceeded in  representing  the  idea  of  God  in 
music,  in  the  sense  of  the  phrase,  "  God  in 
history,"  or  as  Wordsworth  employs  the 
idea  in  "  Tintern  Abbey."  Bosanquet 
says  :  "  I  reply  by  an  instance  :  Brahms's 
German  requiem  has  often  been  praised 
for  the   rich  elaboration  of  its  detail,  its 


154       ®f)£  (EtJoltJtion  of  CSTbnrcl)  ittusic 

blending  of  the  antique  and  modern,  its 
contrapuntal  devices  fused  in  the  crucible 
of  romanticism.  But  it  has  yet  finer  and 
deeper  merits.  The  solemn  opening, 
1  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn,'  is  set  to 
the  same  music  as  the  solemn  close, 
'  Blessed  are  the  dead.'  In  the  middle  of 
the  piece  the  name  of  God  is  introduced 
for  the  first  and  almost  the  last  time,  to 
the  words,  *  The  souls  of  the  righteous 
are  in  God's  hand.'  That  name  is  trans- 
lated into  music  by  the  pedal  note,  which 
is  held  down  from  beginning  to  end  of  the 
fugue  in  which  these  words  are  set.  The 
pedal  note  persists,  makes  its  presence 
felt  throughout,  is  all-enduring,  all-pervad- 
ing. The  fugue  starts  from  it,  and  finally, 
after  many  intricate  wanderings,  returns 
to  it  ;  it  is  the  fundamental  note — the 
foundation  of  the  first  and  last  chords ; 
and  although  many  different  and  appar- 
ently incompatible  harmonies  are  found  in 
the  course  of  the  fugue,  these  harmonies 
are  all  finally  resolved  into  the  initial 
harmony,  of  which  that  pedal  note  is 
the  characteristic  note  and  the  epitome. 


®l)c  QEnolntion  of  Ctjnrcli  Ulttsic        155 

Everything  proceeds  from  it,  and  returns 
to  it ;  it  alone  is  permanent,  and  steadily, 
continuously,  and  irresistibly  self-assert- 
ing. Neither  poetry  nor  painting  nor 
architecture  can  express  such  mysteries 
as  these  with  such  searching  force  and 
directness." 

The  inevitableness  of  this  representation 
may  well  be  questioned  ;  but  it  is  a  good 
instance  of  the  attempt  of  music  to  pre- 
sent an  idea  to  the  intellect  by  a  peculiar 
continuation  of  sound.  There  is  another 
way  in  which  the  representation  can  be 
more  readily  apprehended,  but  it  is  not  a 
method  of  permanent  force  or  value.  I 
mean  the  power  that  music  has  to  asso- 
ciate ideas  by  imitation.  In  numberless 
cases,  composers  have  introduced  imita- 
tions of  natural  sounds  into  their  works, 
inevitably  suggesting  the  ideas  intended 
to  be  represented.  Haydn  reproduced 
the  barking  of  dogs,  the  bray  of  the  ass, 
the  song  of  the  nightingale,  and  the 
cackling  of  the  hen — not  to  speak  of  the 
lordlier  beasts  in  his  oratorio  of  the 
"Creation."     He  also  imitated  musically 


156        QL\)c  evolution  of  Clinrcl)  ittnsic 

the  sounds  of  yawning,  sneezing,  and 
coughing ;  and,  again,  the  tones  of  the 
mother  soothing  and  caressing  her  infant. 
Handel  and  Weber  both  imitated  the 
sound  of  laughter.  In  his  Third  Trio, 
Beethoven  introduced  the  talk  of  three 
persons  in  a  passion,  and  in  another  part 
of  the  same  work  the  moans  of  pain  or 
sorrow.  Mozart  in  his  "  Magic  Flute " 
represented  the  voice  of  a  scolding  woman, 
Rossini  in  "  La  Gazza  Ladra"  the  sobbing 
of  a  child.  Berlioz  is  a  master  in  the 
musical  imitations  of  sounds ;  and  the 
instances  where  Wagner  imitates  nature 
are  too  numerous  to  mention.  He  is, 
indeed,  an  apostle  of  this  principle.  Fire, 
sword,  lightning,  death,  and  all  the  varie- 
ties of  human  love  find  expression  in  his 
wonderful  compositions. 

In  metrical  tunes,  or  hymn  music,  this 
power  of  music  to  represent  ideas  through 
imitation  has  little  scope.  There  are  a 
few  instances  where  it  has  been  faintly 
shadowed  or  sketched ;  as,  notably,  in  the 
tune  to  "Christian,  dost  thou  see  them  ?" 
where  the  composer  certainly  intended  to 


&t)c  (Evolution  of  (Etjnrcl)  fttusic        157 

represent  the  wriggling  and  crawling  of 
the  powers  of  darkness  "striving,  luring, 
tempting,  goading  into  sin."  Yet  the 
higher  function  of  indicating  to  the  mind 
a  leading  thought  is  not  impossible  in 
hymn  music.  A  large  class  of  hymns, 
indeed,  express  one  main  idea  very  dis- 
tinctly ;  the  keynote,  or  fundamental  tone, 
of  the  music  cannot  convey  any  exact 
suggestion,  of  course,  of  the  idea ;  but 
the  leading  theme  can  accord  with  it,  and 
be  in  consonance  with  the  sentiment  of 
the  text.  Praise  is  plainly  enough  the 
keynote  of  many  hymns,  adoration  of 
others,  and  of  still  others,  aspiration,  peni- 
tence, love,  heaven,  judgment,  holiness, 
peace.  Such  hymns  can  easily  be  referred 
to  one  main  idea  which  is  the  summation 
of  the  whole. 

Of  course,  there  is  a  real  difficulty  to 
be  recognized  in  the  perfect  musical  inter- 
pretation of  a  hymn,  for  the  reason  that 
the  music  can  hardly  express  anything 
more  than  the  totality,  or  general  spirit, 
or  drift  of  the  sentiments  of  the  words  ; 
the  difficulty  arising  from  the  fact  that 


158        dlie  evolution  of  ChttrrJ)  Jttnsic 

the  several  verses  may  express  quite  dif- 
ferent, or  even  quite  opposite  emotions. 
The  task  of  reconciling  them  with  the 
music  may  be  impossible,  as  in  Weber's 
"  Der  Freischutz,"  where  the  first  line  of 
the  first  verse  is  "  Softly  sighs  the  voice 
of  evening,"  and  the  corresponding  line  of 
the  second,  "  O  what  terrors  fill  my 
bosom  ! "  If  there  is  a  change  of  senti- 
ment recurring  regularly,  as  in  our  hymn, 
"Christian,  dost  thou  see  them?"  we  can  see 
how  beautifully  it  can  be  expressed,  as  in- 
stanced in  Dr.  Dykes's  tune  for  that  hymn. 
To  the  non-liturgical  churches,  as  has 
been  said,  the  hymns  are  of  even  greater 
importance  than  to  those  which  possess  a 
liturgy.  In  them  the  music  is  almost  ex- 
clusively furnished  by  the  hymn  tunes. 
They  have  not  the  advantages  of  the 
musical  services  which  enrich  a  liturgical 
church.  An  increased  knowledge  of  vocal 
training  and  technique  is  much  needed 
among  us.  All  choir  leaders  should  thor- 
oughly comprehend  the  compass  and  pitch 
of  the  voice,  and  its  power  to  produce  the 
proper  effect  in  the  different  registers. 


QL\)c  (Etiolation  of  Clinrcl)  ittnsic        159 

One  recalls  here  the  remark  of  a 
teacher,  who  was  also  a  distinguished 
composer,  when  a  pupil  brought  him  an 
anthem  in  which  the  tenor  had  the  words 
11  Praise  the  Lord"  on  G  below  middle  C. 
The  teacher  crossed  out  the  passage,  with 
the  remark,  "  The  tenor  cannot  praise  the 
Lord  below  middle  C,"  alluding,  of  course, 
to  the  non-effectiveness  of  a  tenor  voice  at 
so  low  a  pitch.  The  composer  must  con- 
fine each  part  within  a  practicable  range. 

There  is  probably  hardly  any  subject 
upon  which  people  in  general  are  so  ready 
to  express  their  ignorant  opinions  as  music. 
They  talk  and  write  perfect  rubbish  with 
absolute  blindness  to  the  fact  that  it  is 
such.  Even  distinguished  writers,  well 
informed  on  other  branches,  betray  great 
ignorance  about  music.  A  notable  instance 
from  a  famous  poet  occurs  in  the  passage 
in  "  Maud,"  where  Tennyson  says  : 

"All  night  have  the  roses  heard 
The  flute,  violin,  bassoon ; 
All  night  has  the  casement  jessamine  stirred 
To  the  dancers  dancing  in  tune." 


160        &|)£  (ffoolntian  of  <El)tircl)  ittusic 

How  many  readers  would  be  struck  by 
the  peculiar  combination  a  flute,  a  violin, 
and  a  bassoon  would  make  ?  But  the  next 
sentence  as  to  dancers  dancing  in  tune 
tells  us  an  impossibility.  Dancers  dance 
in  time,  but  never  in  tune. 
jkij  *s  '  The  Rev  'Haweis,   among  some  good 

a, j  At+vt  J*9*  musical  observations,  has  made  many  more 
that  are  simply  unmeaning  and  impossi- 
ble rhapsodies.  Robert  Browning,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  a  notable  exception ;  he  was 
himself  a  musician,  and  his  writings  show 
real  musical  knowledge.  His  lines  ring 
like  true  coin,  and  satisfy  even  a  trained 
musician.  Observe  the  careful,  scientific 
phraseology  in  Abt  Vogler,  that  poem 
beloved  by  musicians  : 

"But  here  is  the  finger  of  God,  a  flash  of  the  will 

that  can, 
Existent  behind  all  laws ;  that  made  them,  and  lo, 

they  are ! 
And  I  know  not  if,  save  in  this,  such  gift  be  allowed 

to  man, 
That  out  of  three  sounds,  he  frame  not  a  fresh  sound, 

but  a  star. 
Give  me  the  keys.     I  feel  for  the  common  chord 

again 


®t)C  (Etiolation  of  (Eljttrcl)  iHtisic        161 

Sliding  by  semitones,  till  I  sink  to  the  minor, — yes, 

And  I  blunt  it  into  a  ninth,  and  I  stand  on  alien 
ground, 

Surveying  awhile  the  heights  I  rolled  from  into  the 
deep; 

Which,  hark,  I  have  dared  and  done,  for  my  resting- 
place  is  found, 

The  C  Major  of  this  life ;  so  now  I  will  try  to  sleep." 

Again  in  "  A  Toccata  of  Galuppi's"  the 
terms  he  employs  are  thoroughly  scientific: 

"What,  those  lesser  thirds  so  plaintive,  sixths  dimin- 
ished, sigh  on  sigh, 

Told  them  something?  those  suspensions,  those 
solutions,  ■  Must  we  die  ? '  " 

Those  commiserating  sevenths,  "  Life 
might  last !  we  can  but  try ! "  Through 
the  passionate  ejaculations  which  follow, 
"  Hark,  the  dominant's  persistence  till  it 
must  be  answered  to" — then,  "So  an 
octave  struck  the  answer."  This  is  no 
rhapsody  of  an  untrained  critic  ;  it  is  the 
learning  of  a  musician,  as  well  as  a  poet, 
who  thoroughly  understands  his  subject- 
matter. 

We  can  see,  moreover,  to-day,  how  our 
life  and  mode  of  thought  affect  our  hymn 
ii 


162        QT^e  (Etmlntion  of  Clinrcl)  ittnsic 

music.  In  place  of  the  steady,  flowing 
counterpoint,  dignified  and  grand  as  in 
the  German  chorale,  which  were  born  in 
a  religious  age,  the  unrest  of  our  own  time 
is  typified  by  our  inclination  to  run  into 
chromatic  harmonies — undesirable  enough 
in  anthems,  almost  inexcusable  in  hymns. 
Much  of  our  modern  hymn  music  to-day 
is  characterized  by  a  straining  after  these 
vivid  effects  in  harmony,  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  essential  grace  and  dignity  of  the 
older  hymns. 

Admitting  first  the  importance  of  good 
hymns  and  good  tunes,  it  will  be  granted, 
second,  that  they  are  for  the  use  of  the 
congregation  ;  they  are  to  be  sung  by  the 
people,  and  not  to  be  left  to  the  choir  for 
the  display  of  their  skill.  The  hymns  are 
the  language  in  which  the  soul  of  the 
worshipper  shapes  unspoken  prayer,  or  in 
which  he  aspires  towards  God.  But  this 
is  not  the  only  office  that  sacred  music 
has  to  perform. 

Music  is  used  in  the  church  in  two  ways : 
it  is  used  for  the  melodious  articulation 
of   words,    as   in   the  choral   service,   the 


QL\)c  (fftjolmion  of  Clinrcl)  iflusic        163 

chants,  and  most  of  the  hymns ;  and  again 
for  its  high  emotional  expression,  as  in 
the  anthems  and  special  services  of  the 
choir.  In  the  first  instance  it  exists  only 
for  the  more  harmonious  and  dignified 
utterances  of  the  words  of  prayer  and 
praise  by  the  priests  and  people.  In  its 
second  use  it  is  capable  of  rising  far  above 
any  form  of  human  speech,  and  uses  words 
only  as  a  sort  of  text — a  foundation  upon 
which  to  raise  its  more  glorious,  more  ex- 
alted offering.  Of  this  first  use  of  music 
it  may  be  said  that  if  the  people  have 
anything  to  sing  it  is  chiefly  because  they 
have  something  to  say — to  say  to  God. 
This  music,  therefore,  should  be  easily 
learned,  and  within  the  power  of  all  to 
sing;  it  should  be  plain  and  simple,  but 
with  that  simplicity  which  is  so  closely 
allied  to  beauty  and  grandeur.  That  this 
is  quite  possible  they  know  who  have  had 
the  good  fortune  to  hear  the  plain  chant 
sung  by  worshipping  thousands  in  the 
Continental  cathedrals.  There  is  some- 
thing in  this  simple  chant,  a  grandeur, 
piety,  and  sublimity,  after  which  the  elabor- 


164       &\)c  (Ktjolution  of  Cljtxrct)  fttnsic 

ate  anthem  would  sound  light,  hollow,  and 
unsatisfactory. 

We  have  no  such  cause  to  lament  the 
degeneration  of  chants  as  of  metrical  tunes. 
They  have  maintained  their  character  of 
grandeur  and  style  at  a  constant  level.  Of 
the  Gregorian  chant,  or  plain  song,  we 
have  already  spoken.  To  certain  days  of 
the  church  calendar  the  Gregorian  chants 
are  admirably  suited  ;  when  properly  ren- 
dered, and  not  disfigured  by  the  crude 
efforts  of  an  unskilled  organist,  or  tortured 
into  new  forms  according  to  his  ideas  of 
improvement,  they  are  most  solemn  and 
impressive. 

Dr.  Dykes,  whose  authority  as  a  critic 
is  unquestionable,  says :  "  I  dearly  love 
their  varying  rhythms  and  quaint  cadences. 
To  hear  them  well  and  intelligently  sung 
and  accompanied  is  to  myself  a  great 
treat."  Many  will  feel  that  these  words 
voice  their  own  feelings  for  this  ancient 
music  of  the  Church  ;  but  Dr.  Dykes  him- 
self also  gives  the  reason  why  they  cannot 
be  very  frequently  employed:  the  great 
difficulty    of    rendering    them    accurately 


(EtK  Cfoolntion  of  Cbtircl)  fflnsic        165 

puts  them  beyond  the  scope  of  ordinary 
choirs  and  organists.  The  rhythm  and  me- 
tres of  the  Gregorian  chants  are  different 
in  each  psalm,  so  that  each  one  is  pointed 
differently.  Each  psalm  has  to  be  specially 
pointed  for  its  own  chants.  This  makes 
it  plain  that  it  would  be  very  difficult  for 
any  congregation  to  join  in  a  variety  of 
these  chants,  though  undoubtedly  a  few 
of  them  could  be  learned  by  repeated 
use. 

The  Anglican  chant  presents  less  dif- 
ficulty, both  in  pointing  and  in  accompa- 
nying, and  for  this  reason  that  system  is 
more  generally  adopted  by  our  churches. 
There  are  many  excellent  examples  of  the 
Anglican  chants,  combining  "  simplicity, 
tunefulness,  and  beauty,"  and  adapted  to 
all  the  seasons  of  the  church  year. 

There  are  five  principal  varieties  of  this 
system.  Of  these,  those  known  as  the 
double  chant  and  the  single  chant  major 
are  most  frequently  used,  as  suitable  to 
general  services.  Except  at  Easter  or 
Whitsuntide,  and  during  Advent  and 
Lent,  they  suit  almost  any  words.     When 


i66       &!)*  ©eolation  of  Cljttrt!)  Mnzit 

psalms  of  praise  and  jubilation  are  sung, 
the  jubilant  double  chant  is  used,  and  at 
penitential  seasons,  when  plaintive  and 
mournful  psalms  are  in  order,  they  are  set 
to  the  double  and  single  chant  music. 
Minor  chants  are  so  hard  to  sing  in  tune 
that  they  are  less  frequently  employed. 
And  all  chants  which  are  confusing  to  the 
people  should  be  avoided  when  possible  ; 
for,  like  the  hymns,  chants  are  for  the  use 
of  "the  whole  congregation." 

I  believe  that  the  value  of  simple  chant- 
ing, and  of  a  simple  church  service,  is  not 
appreciated  as  it  should  be  in  the  present 
day.  The  anthem  form  of  service  is  too 
common.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  most  of  the  canticles  should  be  sung 
to  a  plain  and  simple  chant.  In  the  an- 
them form  of  service  we  run  into  the  evil 
which  helped  to  bring  the  quartette  into 
disrepute :  the  people  have  no  part  in  the 
service  as  an  act  of  public  worship. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  two  ways  in  which 
music  is  used  in  the  Church  ;  namely,  that 
it  is  employed  merely  as  a  more  orderly  and 
melodious  utterance  of  the  words  of  prayer 


&he  CPtJolution  of  (!Thnrrh  iflnsic        167 

and  praise  by  priest,  choir,  and  people  ; 
and  again,  it  is  used  as  the  most  elaborate 
expression  and  portrayal  of  emotions  and 
depths  of  feeling  beyond  the  expression 
of  words  alone.  M  God  speaks  to  the 
hearts  of  men  in  many  ways  ; "  not  alone 
by  preaching  from  a  pulpit,  or  through 
the  mouth  of  the  priest  does  He  reach  the 
hearts  of  His  sorrowing-  and  errinp-  chil- 

o  o 

dren.  Those  who  would  harden  to  the 
most  eloquent  sermon  may  expand  and 
melt  to  the  tones  of  the  sweet  singer. 
The  voice  of  the  organ,  unaided  by  any 
words,  has  often  carried  home  His  mes- 
sage. In  a  great  chorus  there  is  a  mighty 
power  to  uplift  the  soul,  even  by  the  mere 
waves  of  sound  which  break  upon  the 
sense  of  hearing.  And,  in  regard  to  the 
singing  of  an  elaborate  anthem,  I  believe 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  the  grace  of  hear- 
ing as  well  as  the  grace  of  singing  or  ut- 
terance ;  that  there  is  a  passive  as  well  as 
an  active  side  to  public  worship ;  and  for 
this  the  anthem  certainly  comes  in  at  the 
right  moment.  Balzac  says  that  between 
the  human  worshippers  on  their  knees  and 


1 68       &t)t  evolution  of  QHjnrcl)  iflnsic 

the  hidden  God  there  is  a  distance  best 
travelled  by  the  hundred  voices  of  the 
choir — "les  chants  qui  alternent  avec  le 
tonnerre  des  orgues." 

When  the  church  darkens  in  the  deepen- 
ing twilight,  and  evening  has  brought  the 
services  of  the  day  to  an  end,  what  an 
effect  of  calmness  and  of  trustful  strength 
comes  to  the  waiting  worshippers  in  an 
anthem  such  as  Mendelssohn's  "  He 
watching  over  Israel  "  !  The  steady  tran- 
quil flow  of  such  a  divine  harmony  fitly 
preludes  the  benediction  of  "the  peace 
which  passeth  understanding." 

On  Ascension  Day  Gounod's  uplifting 
anthem,  "  Unfold,  unfold,  ye  portals  ever- 
lasting," seems  to  bear  us,  with  the  as- 
cending Lord,  within  the  very  gates  of  the 
celestial  city.  And  at  Christmas  those 
breathless  repetitions  in  the  Hallelujah 
chorus  transport  the  overflowing  praises 
of  our  souls  to  the  throne  of  God. 

An  excellent  collection  of  anthems  was 
prepared  a  few  years  ago  by  Mr.  Edward 
Giles,  then  choir-master  at  St.  James' 
Church,   Philadelphia.      Nearly  all  these 


©I)e  (ffoolmion  of  (Eljnrcl)  ifclnsic       169 

are  within  the  scope  of  a  boy-choir  of 
average  ability — a  competent  choir-master 
being  understood.  It  is  a  compilation 
which  can  be  relied  on  for  good  taste  and 
as  being  serviceable  in  practice. 

"  The  active  phase  of  worship  has  been 
carried  to  its  climax.  The  congregation 
has  been  for  the  most  of  the  time  stand- 
ing or  kneeling;  the  psalms  and  canticles 
have  been  sung,  the  creed  has  been  re- 
cited, the  prayers  have  been  said,  the 
spirit  is  beginning  to  wax  faint ;  then,  all 
being  hushed,  the  anthem  comes  to  stimu- 
late and  refresh  the  spirit,  and  raise  it 
to  the  highest  atmosphere  of  devotion. 
There  are  in  every  congregation  those 
who  cannot  sing  the  simplest  melody,  and 
yet  whose  appreciation  of  this  class  of 
music  is  most  keen  ;  and  it  acts  to  them 
as  an  heavenly  inspiration.  They  can  at 
least  sing  in  spirit."  And  while  in  spoken 
or  written  language  there  are  but  few 
ways  of  expressing  any  one  emotion,  the 
vocabulary  of  music  is  practically  inex- 
haustible. We  have  single  words — love, 
hope,    fear,   and  a    few   more    to   qualify 


170        &!)£  ©solution  of  Cl)urcl)  ittusic 

them  ;  but  music  gives  us  an  infinite  vari- 
ety of  ways  of  expressing  the  same  emo- 
tion and  its  every  shade  of  feeling.  Take 
a  "Te  Deum "  by  Stainer,  another  by 
Goss,  another  by  Barnby,  still  others  by 
Garrett,  McFarren,  and  Calkin.  Each 
composer  has  treated  the  subject  in  his 
own  individual  way ;  no  two  are  alike ; 
yet  each  one  beautifully  and  truthfully 
expresses  in  music  the  meaning  and  feel- 
ing of  every  sentence. 

The  American  Church  has  not  yet 
thrown  off  the  influence  of  the  school  of 
music  which  the  quartette  choir,  already 
mentioned,  brought  into  being  and  en- 
couraged for  many  years.  Little  of  this 
music  had  the  slightest  pretense  to  relig- 
ious feeling.  Where  it  and  the  old-fash- 
ioned "high  and  dry"  quartette  prevailed, 
spiritual  life  was  generally  at  a  low  ebb. 
The  reason  was  not  far  to  seek.  The 
people  took  no  part  whatever  in  the  ser- 
vice ;  the  musical  portion  of  it  had  de- 
generated into  a  kind  of  entertainment 
for  the  listening  congregation ;  the  human 
or  sectarian    idea  supplanted  the  church 


QL\)t  ©Dotation  of  <EI)ttrcl)  ittnsic        171 

idea,  and  public  worship — the  worship  of 
common  prayer — resolved  itself  into  a 
service  rendered  exclusively  by  the  minis- 
ter and  the  choir. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Aitkjn,  who  is  well  known 
here,  published  some  of  his  impressions  of 
the  American  Church  on  returning  home 
to  England.  He  said  he  was  surprised  to 
find  the  quartette  choir  here  in  all  its 
glory ;  he  had  no  idea  that  this  relic  of 
the  past  age  would  be  lingering  in  the 
"most  go-ahead  nation  of  the  world." 
He  thus  describes  the  performance  :  "  A 
female  contralto  voice  murmuring  inar- 
ticulate utterances,  sustained  by  an  organ 
accompaniment  scarcely  more  audible  than 
would  have  been  the  tones  of  a  musical 
snuff-box  heard  at  an  equal  distance,  made 
me  aware,  as  I  rose  from  my  knees,  that 
something  was  happening.  .  .  .  Soon 
the  organ  put  on  a  crescendo,  and  a  so- 
prano voice  broke  in  with  equally  inarticu- 
late utterances,  which  presently  culminated 
in  a  blood-curdling  shriek,  a  bass  and  a 
tenor  by  this  time  assisting  in  the  per- 
formance, which  lasted  for  about  five  min- 


172        QH)C  (EtJohttiott  of  CII)tircl)  Music 

utes,  and  concluded  without  conveying 
any  single  idea  to  my  mind,  except  one 
that  I  found  to  be  in  some  degree  sus- 
tained by  fact — that  I  had  been  listening 
to  very  indifferent  opera  singers.  Then 
came  the  reading  of  the  service,  the  four 
distinguished  persons  in  the  west  gallery 
apparently  taking  no  part  until  the  Ve7iite 
was  reached.  Here  came  performance  the 
second,  the  large  congregation  standing 
meekly  while  the  four  actors  gayly  dis- 
ported themselves  up  and  down  the  dia- 
tonic and  the  chromatic  scales." 

I  dare  say  that  few  of  my  readers  have 
not  had,  somewhere  in  this  broad  land,  a 
similar  experience.  There  is  no  denying 
that  a  fine  quartette  choir  can  produce 
most  beautiful  harmony  ;  so  beautiful,  in- 
deed, that  in  listening  the  congregation 
becomes  entirely  absorbed  in  the  intellec- 
tual or  the  sensual  appreciation  of  it.  Its 
spiritual  significance  is  so  overshadowed 
that  none  but  the  most  devout  can  keep 
sight  of  it.  The  quartette  choir  often 
gives  us  a  very  finished  performance  of 
chamber  music  ;  but  as  church  music,  it  is 


fttje  Quotation  of  Clinrcl)  iflnsie        173 

paralyzing  to  congregational  worship — it 
promotes  spiritual  dulness  and  death. 

But  at  present  there  is  some  danger  of 
our  drifting  to  another  extreme.  From 
accounts  published  from  time  to  time  in 
the  parochial  news-columns  of  our  church 
papers,  one  would  suppose  that  what  is 
popularly  called  a  "  boy-choir  "  is  the  only 
choir  that  can  fitly  sing  the  church's  music. 
Thus  it  is  told  with  deep  satisfaction  that 
St.  Harmonium's  parish  has  at  last  at- 
tained to  a  vested  choir,  which  made  its 
first  appearance  upon  such  a  date,  and 
under  such  and  such  circumstances  ;  and 
from  the  way  the  affair  is  written  up  it  is 
easily  seen  how  happy  the  good  priest  is 
at  his  success,  whether  the  people  may  be 
or  not.  One  would  almost  imagine  that 
some  pressing  doctrinal  principles  were 
absolutely  dependent  on  having  a  surpliced 
choir.  The  idea  has  seized  upon  the  com- 
munity that  it  is  more  devotional  that  the 
soprano  parts  should  be  rendered  by  boys' 
and  not  women's  voices,  and  the  fancy  has 
swept  the  country,  capturing  parish  after 
parish,  without  regard  to  the  many  limita- 


174        &be  (KtJolntion  of  (Eljurcl)  Jttnsic 

tions  which  must  regulate  and  modify  the 
usage.  The  popular  idea  seems  to  be  that 
all  that  is  needed  to  obtain  a  boy-choir  is 
to  gather  a  mob  of  urchins  from  the 
streets,  give  them  books  and  a  few  re- 
hearsals, put  vestments  on  them,  and  turn 
them  into  the  stalls.  They  may  sing  flat 
and  sing  sharp  ;  they  may  murder  the  ser- 
vice and  drag  through  the  hymns,  they 
may  shout  and  scream,  with  voices  that 
would  scratch  glass,  they  may  rattle  the 
windows  with  the  Nunc  Dimittis — but  the 
parish  has  a  boy-choir,  and  the  rector  is 
happy,  even  though  the  long-suffering 
congregation  be  literally  sung  out  of 
doors. 

A  poor  boy-choir  is  the  worst  kind  of 
choir.  A  good  one,  outside  of  the  larger 
towns  and  cities,  is,  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances, an  impossibility.  There  may 
arrive  a  time  when  the  musical  taste  and 
knowledge  of  the  mass  of  our  people  will 
reach  a  level  high  enough  to  make  it  pos- 
sible for  every  village  church  to  have  its 
well-trained,  vested  choir ;  but  that  time 
has  not  yet   arrived,    nor  is   there  much 


(Elje  (ftjolntkm  of  Ct)nrcli  fflnoic        175 

hope  of  its  coming  for  several  generations 
yet.  Few  large  towns  in  this  country  can 
furnish  the  material  for  a  good  boy-choir  ; 
nor,  what  is  just  as  important,  can  they 
furnish  men-teachers  capable  of  training 
boys'  voices.  As  compared  with  the  Eng- 
lish Church  we  are  far  behind  in  this 
matter.  There  the  cathedral  services  have 
given  rise  to  a  class  of  men  highly  skilled 
in  music,  whose  instructions  have  raised 
the  whole  standard  of  popular  taste. 

In  his  essay,  "  The  Cathedral  a  School 
of  Music,"  the  Dean  of  Norwich  wrote,  "  It 
must  be  remembered  that  music  has  by  no 
means  as  yet  taken  that  position  in  our 
service  that  it  has  a  right  to  take.  The 
minds  of  the  people  are  not  all  disabused 
of  the  notion  that  music  is  a  mere  orna- 
mental accessory  of  worship  ;  they  have 
not  all  yet  come  round  to  the  view  that 
it  is  the  highest,  truest,  deepest  expres- 
sion of  devotional  feeling."  Bishop  Pot- 
ter, of  New  York,  quoting  this  passage, 
said  in  a  recent  sermon  : 

11  True  as  these  words  are  in  England,  it 
is  impossible  that  they  could  more  accu- 


176        Qtt)e  evolution  of  Cliurcl]  Jttnsic 

rately  describe  ourselves.  In  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  the  musical  worship  of 
our  church  has,  indeed,  advanced  to  a 
higher  level.  But  it  is  still,  in  many 
places,  pretentious,  obtrusive,  and  bad.  It 
often  consumes  more  time  than  of  old, 
provokes  more  comment,  and  is  far  from 
what  it  ought  to  be,  and  farther  still  from 
what  it  easily  might  be.  It  will  continue 
to  be  so  until  we  have  some  more  normal 
school  of  church  music,  such  as  the  ca- 
thedrals have  shown  themselves  to  be  in 
England,  having  about  them  a  prestige 
which  cannot  be  despised,  and  illustrating 
an  excellence  which  cannot  fail  to  provoke 
a  healthy  emulation.  And  all  this  the 
cathedral  can  do  without  the  likelihood  of 
being  beguiled  into  undue  display  or  be- 
trayed into  foolish  extravagance.  In  the 
parish  the  vagaries  of  the  individual  par- 
ish priest  or  organist  may  run  away  with 
him;  but  in  the  cathedral  there  is  an  imper- 
sonality of  administration  which  tends 
to  restrain  eccentricity,  and  to  make 
mere  individualism  almost  impossible. 
True,  the  cathedral  is  the  bishop's  church 


(ftl)e  ©oolntion  of  QIl)urcl)  lUasic        177 

or  seat,  but  the  bishop  who  administers 
it  must  be  able  to  command  the  cooper- 
ation of  a  body  of  clergy  whose  vari- 
ous tastes  and  opinions  must  greatly 
modify  his  own.  Under  such  a  system, 
novel  customs  will  not  be  apt  to  find 
easy  admission  ;  and  while  there  will 
be,  as  there  ought  to  be,  progress  and 
improvement  in  the  Church's  worship, 
it  will  be  progress  in  the  direction 
of  those  things  only  which  have  been 
wisely  and  thoroughly  tested  and  ap- 
proved." 

Yet,  although  this  recommendation 
holds  good  for  the  present,  and  it  may 
seem  to  us  that  the  status  of  what  we 
esteem  as  sacred  music  has  been  estab- 
lished, that  the  rules  which  regulate  its 
structure  and  feeling  have  been  proved, 
we  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  music 
both  as  a  science  and  an  art  is  essentially 
progressive.  When  all  music  was  in  the 
sole  hand  of  the  Church,  the  obstinacy  of 
dogma  hampered  its  growth  for  centuries. 
"  Pedantry  is  a  finger-post  which  points 
not   forward    to   the    road    we   seek,  but 


178       f£l)e  (Etiolation  of  (Slljnrct)  iflttsk 

backward  to  that  which  we  have  already 
traversed." 

None  of  the  laws  that  we  have  enu- 
merated may  be  laid  down  as  final.  In 
their  own  age  they  have  a  recognized  and 
valid  authority ;  in  the  age  which  follows, 
they  may  very  probably  be  superseded  by 
a  greater  law.  This  is  the  spirit  of  true 
reverence  towards  Art.  We  are  con- 
stantly standing  on  the  threshold  of  new 
discoveries ;  we  are  constantly  opening 
up  new  and  unexplored  fields,  and  new 
combinations  surprise  and  delight  us, 
proving  the  inexhaustibility  and  endless- 
ness of  the  gamut  of  musical  expression. 
For  the  soldier  there  is  martial  music  to 
cheer  him  upon  the  march,  to  excite  him 
to  victory,  or  to  rejoice  in  his  triumph  ; 
there  is  music  which  invites  us  to  the  joy 
of  the  dance ;  there  is  the  music  of  love, 
pure  and  impure ;  there  is  mirthful  music 
to  make  us  laugh ;  and  there  is  the 
solemn  music  with  which  we  follow  the 
dead. 

All  these  fitly  arouse  and  express  the 
ever-changing   passions    of   man.       Shall 


(Elje  ©oolntion  of  QThurch  iJltxsic        179 

the  music  of  the  Church  be  less  adequate 
to  its  consecrated  purpose?  If  this  is  to 
be  so,  it  will  not  be  through  any  lack  of 
power  of  its  own  to  breathe  the  human 
doubts  and  fears,  the  longings  and  aspira- 
tions of  an  immortal  soul. 


FROM    THE    LIBRARY   OF 

REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.   D.  D 

BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY   OF 

PRINCETON   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


ju  \ 


Section 


